An Extended Family
by Megalograptus
Summary: Danny has only just gotten his powers and is still trying to get them under control is it any wonder that a certain bat family should pick up on this when they meet, added to that learning more about his families past, its just a little much to take in all at once.
1. Chapter 1

An Extended Family

Chapter 1

Dick stepped from the limo and followed Bruce into the crowded exhibition hall, Dick always found these kind of things a boring waste of time but he had to keep up appearances as Bruce's young ward. Over the next five days a science exhibition was being shown here, scientists from all over the world had come and set up a stall to show off their latest inventions and theories. The exhibition would open to the public tomorrow but today was all about the scientists trying to snag investments and so only the richest industry leaders where here wandering between tables and talking to the geniuses behind them.

Bruce stopped at the first table which seemed to be about automated satellites that would harvest minerals from asteroids. Whilst Bruce was distracted talking to the engineer Dick decided to sneak off and walk around on his own ' _I mean'_ thought Dick ' _Bruce is great but he gets way too excited about some of this stuff'._ The black haired teen put on his sunglasses and decided to use the event as training, get from one side of the hall to the other through the crowd without being seen or stopped by someone who might recognise me. He was about halfway down the hall when suddenly a foot shot out from under one of the cloth lined tables and tripped Dick sending him flying forwards to head butt another teen who was walking in the other direction with two cups of scalding hot coffee. As both boys fell the coffee was flung into the air, both watched it as almost in slow motion both cups collided with the head of one of the investors.

"AAAGGGHHHH!" the man screamed rubbing at his face he turned and saw the two boys on the floor with a look or rage he grabbed the front of the other boy's t-shirt, completely ignoring Dick he dragged the poor boy forwards and shouted in his face "Daniel what in the blazes do you think your doing? You could have blinded me!" a huge grin split the front of the boys face before he replied.

"Sorry Vlad it was an accident, but if I had thought of it it would have made a great prank" Vlad growled and pulled the boy closer his other hand making a fist and rising of its own accord.

Dick quickly jumped in, recognising the pony-tailed man from some of the many benefit galas he had been forced to go to he said "My apologies Mr Masters, it was my fault I wasn't watching where I was going" Vlad let go of Daniels shirt and straitened out his suit.

"No need to apologise Mr Wayne I was simply taken by surprise, I've had problems with this little sh… shameless youth before and instantly assumed he was at fault" stated Vlad.

"Well no harm done Mr Masters, and its Grayson not Wayne"

"Ah of course it is, now if you'll excuse me I must go and get cleaned up" and with that Vlad stalked off with his little entourage of aides leaving the two boys alone.

The two faced each other and was suddenly struck by the similarities they could almost have been twins with the unruly black hair and startling blue eyes, they where very near the same height with Daniel being ever so slightly taller. Daniel was wearing baggy jeans and a white t-shirt that was way to big for him, it made him look thin and scrawny but dick could tell from the way he moved that they had the same wiry muscle build. Dick felt the atmosphere turn awkward as they just stood there sizing each other up so he stuck out his hand "Hi I'm Dick, Daniel right?" he asked nervously,

"Friends call me Danny" he said shaking Dicks hand.

"So Danny what you doing here?"

"My parents are scientists hoping to get some investments on their tech, I got dragged along to act as errand boy. How about you?" Danny said rubbing the back of his neck

"Ah so that's why you had all that coffee, I'm here with Bruce Wayne he's sorta my dad and I always get dragged along to these things"

"Wait the Bruce Wayne is your dad?" Danny asked "Sweet your rich now I don't feel guilty for asking you to pay for the coffee you spilled 'cause I'm all out of money" Danny said with a grin pulling out 50 cents from his pocket "this isn't enough to buy more"

Dick grinned back before walking forwards and grabbing Danny's arm "Fine but were going to a proper coffee shop I'm not drinking the swill they serve in places like this" he said pulling Danny out of the hall and down the street.

Danny laughed "posh snob" he muttered jokingly

Dick quickly threw back "By the way your dressed like a hobo"

Danny put a hand to his chest in mock offence "You wound me sir" he said in the best posh British accent he could manage. Dick started giggling he was liking Danny more by the minute.

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Danny was slowly winding his way though the hall back to his parents stall to deliver the coffee. Dick had disappeared back in to the crowd soon after the came back saying he was going to have lunch with Bruce he had handed Danny a slip of paper with his cell phone number on it promising to meet up later and hang out. Danny smiled but then focused back on his hands, he had only gotten his powers a couple of weeks ago and they were proving difficult to control it seemed like his body naturally wanted to go intangible and invisible so he had to focus on remaining visible and solid. The amount of times he had woken up on the floor in the lab after going intangible in his sleep and falling though the house, but he was slowly getting used to it, he just didn't want to drop this very expensive coffee.

It was taking less concentration as time when on to maintain his form as human and solid he was just lucky everyone thought he was just clumsy. Getting back to the table he handed off the coffee to his parents who were dressed in their usual bright orange and teal jumpsuits and then walked over to the back of the display where jazz had her nose buried in a psychology textbook and gave her the hot chocolate Dick had bought as he sipped his. "Danny these aren't from the refreshments stall" his mum said raising an eyebrow at the drinks in her children's hands.

"Oh yea someone bumped into me and spilled the coffees I got you so he took me to a shop down the street to get more" Danny replied.

"Oh that was nice of him, did you get his name dear we should thank him if he comes to look at our display"

" Yea it was Dick Grayson he said he was here with Bruce Wayne" Maddie suddenly when very pale and shakily put down the cup of coffee

"Did you say Grayson?" she asked uncertainly,

"Yea, he was funny he looked like he could have been my doppelgänger" Danny chuckled completely missing his mothers reaction to the name.

Maddie looked at Danny in horror before muttering "Oh my god" she got up and rushed off looking like she was about to be sick.

"Mads!" said Jack standing up, tuning to the kids he said "I'll check on Mads, you two man the fort until we get back" with that he rushed off in the same direction. Danny looked at the display in front of him in dismay the sign read _'Ecto based energy Weapons, simple hand held weapons that can cut though a tanks armour and get rid of those pesky ghosts_ ' the table was strewn with a variety of weapons and their components. Danny had no clue how any of them worked, he saw a business man approaching the display he glanced at Jazz who was sat behind him as far away from the table as it was possible to get

"Not It!" she shouted

"Not it!, Damn" Danny shouted just a second too late, sighing he stood to try and explain best he could how is parents wacky inventions worked.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Wow so many follows and favs in one day I'm flattered so many people like this story. Thanks for the reviews as well guys, I know I need a beta reader for this story as I make a few mistakes so if there are any volunteers that would be great thanks. Many people I'm sure have already guessed the connection between Dick and Danny but I've put a bit of a twist to it I'm sure your going to either love it or hate it. Anyway reviews are always welcome even negative ones as I'm always trying to improve my writing, and thanks for taking the time to read my story!**

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Dick and Bruce re-entered the hall after their lunch, Bruce wanted to show Dick a new alloy which could be potentially used for Batarangs to make them lighter and stronger. Whilst leading Dick over to the display a loud bang rung out quieting the hall as everyone turned to look at the pillar of smoke rising from the far wall, the unmistakeable sound of fire extinguishers soon followed. Most in the the hall resumed their conversations chuckling about some loons experiment probably going wrong. Bruce and Dick shared a look before heading in the direction of the small explosion.

It took them 10 minutes of weaving through the crowd before they arrived on the scene, Dick quickly noticed Danny being shouted at by a elderly man who was wildly gesturing at the destroyed display behind him. Which was currently being checked over by some of the exhibition officials to ensure there was no further fire. Bruce marched over hoping to diffuse the situation,

"Is everything ok?" he asked the elderly gentleman who's name badge read 'Professor A. Light.'

"No it is not this buffoon has just destroyed my only working prototype, it took me 6 months to build that photogenerator and he just destroyed it with his toy gun!"

"I said I was sorry" Danny turned to Bruce and said "I was just doing a demonstration with the Fenton wrist rays and the gun just slipped out of my hands and went off when it hit the floor" Danny explained shakily

"Calm down Danny everything will be OK" said Dick as he placed a hand on Danny's shoulder,

Bruce looked between the two and raised his eyebrows in surprise before turning to Professor Light and deciding to deal with the situation at hand first. As Bruce walked away talking with the professor Jazz was openly gaping at the two boys in front of her, Dick noticing her for the first time turned and offered his hand.

"Hi I'm Dick" taking his hand she responded

"Jazz, nice to meet you"

"Jazz is my older sister" Supplied Danny

"Jazz, Danny! What's going on?" yelled Maddy as she marched over to the three teens. Dick looked up to see the approaching woman dressed bizarrely in a teal jumpsuit with orange goggles followed closely by a very large man in a similar orange jumpsuit. Noticing Dick as she got closer she stopped in her tracks "you must be Mr Grayson?" she asked removing her goggles revealing violet eyes rimmed with red as though she had been crying.

"Please call me Dick" he said holding out his hand for her to shake, she took his hand and said

"Its a pleasure to meet you Dick" with a sad smile

"Mads I think its time you had a talk with Danny" Jack said quietly

"What now? It doesn't seem like the right time"

"Maddie" Jack said fondly "it will never be the right time for this" putting his hand on her shoulder "but this seems like as good an opportunity as your going to get" Danny looked at his parents in confusion.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking at her son with concern Maddy slowly took off her gloves and sighed

"Come with me Danny we should talk in private" she said then after a moments consideration she turned to Dick and said "you should come to, this concerns you as well".

"Erm OK" said Dick as he followed the woman out of the hall and into a corridor.

Behind them they heard Jack say to Jazz "now do you care to explain what happened here?"

dumbfounded Jazz complained "It isn't my fault that Danny's gotten so clumsy lately!"

"You're the oldest Jazz that makes you responsible"

"WHAT, Why?" Jazz shouted back at her father. Both boys chuckled at Jazz getting into trouble for something that wasn't her fault. The trio reached the end of the corridor and slipped into a random office.

"Excuse me" said Maddy kindly to the man sitting behind the desk "but could you give us some privacy, I'm sure you understand"

"but this is my office you cant just barge in..."

"Thank you for your patience" said Maddy practically grabbing the poor man by the collar of his shirt and throwing him from the room locking the door behind him. "Sit down boys" she said gesturing to the two chairs in front of the desk as she took the man's seat, only to jump up again and mutter "no that wont do at all, I feel like I'm interviewing you".

"Er mom, was there something you wanted to tell us?" said Danny starting to become a little disturbed by her behaviour and feeling sorry for the man who had just been forcibly ejected from his own office.

"And what does this have to do with me?" asked Dick glancing at Danny and wondering if this was normal for his family, they did look a little eccentric after all. Maddy was biting a fingernail as she walked back around the desk and sat on the desk in front of the two boys,

"OK I have something to tell the two of you and it's a long story so bare with me until the end and then you can ask all of the questions you want, Deal?" both teens looked at each other briefly and then nodded at Maddy to continue. She sighed wondering how to start off suddenly feeling very old she began talking "As you know Danny, Jazz is 16 and you're 14 well I'm guessing that Dick here is 15 am I correct?"

"yea turned 15 last month" confirmed Dick wondering what his age has to do with anything.

"Well" continued Maddy "when Jazz was a little over a year old your father and I spilt up" she said looking at the surprise all over Danny's face. "Now we did get back together obviously but we where apart for about 5 months. During this time I went and stayed with my parents in Washington, taking Jazz with me. Your father and I had been having troubles ever since Jazz was born, we didn't know it at the time but I was suffering from postnatal depression. It was undiagnosed and it caused a huge strain on our relationship after a few fights I just couldn't take it any more and I left. To your father's credit he realised that I just needed some space, although that didn't stop him from doing everything he could to get me to come back, he wrote me letters nearly every day that I was away" She said looking off into the distance with a fond smile on her face. Dick was still wondering what this had to do with him and was running through several scenarios in his head from what she had been saying and he wasn't sure how he felt about the implications.

"About a month into my stay at my parents house they suggested I go out with some of my old school friends, so I rang them up and we decided on a girls night out, with my parents babysitting Jazz. My friend Christine managed to get some tickets to a circus that was in town for a few days so we decided to start our night off that way and then go clubbing afterwards" Dick tensed on hearing circus which did not go unnoticed by Danny who glanced at him quizzically, Danny himself was trying to get the image of his mother clubbing out of his head.

"The circus was fantastic the best I have been to, although admittedly I haven't been to many so I can't really judge. But the highlight of the show was definitely the Flying Graysons" She looked at Dick and smiled sadly "yes I knew your parents, in the air they really did fly they where so graceful a truly spectacular sight. They inspired me to take up martial arts, oh I could never be as good as them not in a million years but I wanted to be able to move as they did."

"Thank you for sharing that, its good to hear some people still remember them" said Dick quietly his voice cracked as he spoke. Danny looked at Dick sympathetically considering Dick said Bruce Wayne was his dad earlier he could put two and two together. Maddy nodded at Dick, clearing her throat she continued with her story.

"During the intermission raffle tickets where given out and I bought one, the winner would be reviled at the end of the show and would be able to go back stage with a couple of friends to meet the performers. Well I won, I was so excited I took my friends with me and met all of the performers including the Graysons, we mentioned we were going clubbing and a few of the performers came along. Mary wasn't drinking and told us she was about 2 months pregnant with you Dick and so she left early to get some sleep." Sighing again Maddy shuffle about on the desk trying to get more comfortable knocking a pile of papers on the floor not that anyone paid any attention to them too engrossed in the story being told.

"As the night wore on more and more people left until it was just me and John, he insisted on walking me home, oh he was such a dashing gentleman the type that are not very common now a days in a way I suppose he reminded me of Jack. We swapped numbers and met up again the next day for lunch, what followed was a brief but intense fling. I don't know what drove us to it, neither of us where the type to cheat on our partners but it was almost as though we just couldn't stop ourselves." Danny's eyes where slowly getting wider with each passing minute as a pit of dread opened up in his stomach he had pretty much guessed what was going to be said next but that didn't make hearing it any easier.

"John and Mary left at the end of the week as the circus moved on to another city. I don't think John ever told Mary but in any case I didn't see either of them ever again. The morning sickness started a couple of weeks later, I didn't see it for what it was at first as we where so careful to use protection"

"Ew mom!" cried Danny that was definitely something he didn't need to hear. Maddy chuckled and then continued as though Danny hadn't spoke.

"Once I realised what was going on I panicked, I had been contemplating going back to Jack and I was terrified about what he would say. My parents recommended that I get an abortion and say nothing of it to Jack. I even considered it I remember standing in front of the abortion clinic for 10 minutes before deciding I would keep you. I just couldn't destroy the life of a child , I was resolute, I would just have to explain the best I could to your father and hope he would still take me back. He was angry at first, and when I say angry I mean apoplectic with rage but he soon calmed down and said he needed time to think. After a couple of months of silence when I thought I had lost him Jack turned up on my parents doorstep with a bag full of baby clothes, he said that he still loved me and would do anything to stay with me, that life wasn't worth living if I wasn't in it. He agreed to raise you Danny as though you where his own, after all we had always wanted a boy and a girl and now we had you." Maddy said with a smile at Danny who looked like he was about to have a panic attack. "But Jack is your father Danny and I'll not hear you say other wise do you understand? He loves you just as much as if you where his biological son" She finished pointing at Danny with a rather strict look on her face.

Both boys where looking pretty shocked as the story concluded they turned to each other "so we're brothers?" asked Danny

"Yes, well half brothers at least" Maddy responded

"What about me, where do I fit in?" asked Dick

"Well your mother was pregnant with you when I met them so that's how I knew that you'd be about a year older than Danny. To be honest the first time I heard your name was when you parents died, Jack had a computer program which flagged any news stories from anywhere in the world no matter the publication. We normally used this to keep up to date with the latest science in the public domain but it was set to look for other things of interest as well including your parents. We hadn't decided if we wanted to tell John and Mary about Danny, we had no way of contacting them anyway once they were out of the country. Once the news article was flagged about their deaths and it said that they had left behind a son we wanted to adopt you but Bruce Wayne got to you first and we thought you would probably have a better life with him, he could provide for you in a way we can't." the trio where silent for a moment lost in their own thoughts before Maddy spoke up again, "well I'll leave you two to alone I'm sure you have things you want to talk about" and with that she stood crossed the room and opened the door "I'll be at the display if you need anything" she said leaving the teens alone in the office.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Again thanks for all of the follows and favourites, I've been feeling a little down lately and writing this and reading the reviews and seeing all of the people following has really cheered me up so thanks to all the people who have taken the time to read this.**

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Chapter 3

Danny and Dick sat there in silence once Maddy had left both thinking over the implications of what had just happened. Dick was ecstatic _'I have a little brother_ he thought' to himself ' _I've always wanted more family and now I've got it, I suppose that also makes Jazz kinda my older sister'_ he jumped out of his chair and launched himself at Danny knocking him out of his chair and pulling him into a hug. The two landed on the floor completely winding Danny "Dick can't breath" he wheezed

"Sorry, I'm just so excited, I have a little brother" Dick called out happily

"Yea, its great. Wait who are you calling little?"

"Well you are younger"

"Yea but taller" Danny said smugly getting back to his feet and pulling Dick with him

"Barely" Dick pouted, "wait until I tell Bruce, I can just imagine the look on his face" he said with an evil grin "but he is going to insist on a DNA test you know" he said looking at Danny.

"A DNA test?" said Danny suddenly going pale. A plume of condensed air escaped his lips and he shivered, he'd been getting this feeling all day and it was really starting to annoy especially as he had no idea why it was happening.

"Yea I mean look at us it pretty obvious were related I mean we could be twins, but Bruce gets a little paranoid and he's going to want to confirm it" explained Dick oblivious to Danny's shivering. Danny seemed to be getting paler by the minute, he then started pacing and chewing his fingernails in the same way his mother did earlier. Growing a little confused at Danny's behaviour Dick asked "is everything O..." stopping mid sentence as he noticed something. Danny was pacing a circle in front of the desk where his mother had knocked all of those papers and files earlier, but Danny hadn't disturbed a single page as he walked over them. Frowning Dick kept watching as Danny who was seemingly lost in thought, hadn't heard him earlier and kept pacing. Danny walked in front of the desk and then stepped though the file, Dick's heart jumped for a second as Danny continued on his lap around the office oblivious to the scrutiny he was now receiving from Dick.

Dick kept watching wanting to see Danny do it again to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, as Danny approached the spilled office equipment again Dick kept his eyes fixed on the files and sure enough Danny's foot passed straight through it without moving the file at all. One minute Danny's foot was hovering in air above the file the next his leg seemed to end at the ankle with his foot firmly entrenched in the file only to be pulled out again as he continued walking. Dick picked up the file and examined it, yep a perfectly ordinary cardboard file showing no sign that it had briefly become one with Danny's foot.

Jazz's voice come back to him then 'It isn't my fault that Danny has gotten so clumsy lately!', Danny going so pale at the mention of a DNA test was making a lot more sense now ' _sweet my half brother has super powers this is going to make so many things so much easier'_ Dick thought to himself with a smile. Danny stopped pacing to look at Dick quizzically "why do you look like that file has told you Christmas is coming early this year?" Danny asked.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Dick said waving the file in Danny's direction putting the other had on his hip.

"Erm" said Danny intelligently,

"About the fact that you seem to be able to pass through solid objects" Dick questioned with a smirk. Danny's eyes widened, he backed up until he stood against the wall, his breathing started to pick up. Dick recognising the signs of an oncoming panic attack dropped the file and placed both hands on Danny's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Calm down Danny I'll keep your secret I promise, I wont tell anyone unless you let me OK" taking a step back he smiled and said "cross my heart and hope to die" drawing a cross on his chest. Smiling at the action Danny's breathing steadied and slowed. "Mind telling me what's going on?" asked Dick kindly thinking Danny's reaction was a little extreme.

"Erm OK, but you promise you wont tell?" asked Danny somewhat nervously,

"I wont tell a soul" confirmed Dick

"A...a couple of weeks ago there was an accident in my parents lab" Danny began, holding up his left hand and pointing to a patch of raw pink flesh that formed a circle on the palm. ' _That's going to scar'_ thought Dick as he looked over the healing wound with a practised eye ' _looks like an electrical burn'._ His thoughts where confirmed a minute later when Danny continued "I was electrocuted and passed out, when I woke up I looked like this" Danny scrunched his eyes in concentration as much to Dick's surprise a white ring appeared around Danny's waist and separated travelling up and down his body revealing his alter-ego. White hair replaced black, green eyes replaced blue and a black and white hazmat suit, similar in design to ones his parents wore replaced his regular clothing, a faint white glow surrounded Danny's body as he started to float a few inches off the floor.

Dick's jaw had just about hit the ground when Danny transformed, Danny floated closer to Dick and asked nervously "are you OK?" Dick stared stupidly at Danny for a few moments noticing the weird echo his voice seemed to have now which sent a shiver down his spine before responding with a huge grin.

"Dude this is awesome, my brother's a superhero!" Dick said throwing his hands in the air ' _yep I'm one too and I see others on a daily basis but Bruce would kill me if I told you yet'_ he thought "so you can fly to huh?" ' _but if I make a big fuss of how awesome this is you might forgive me for not telling you later'._

"Yep" said Danny happy that Dick was taking this so well "I can also do this", turning invisible he circled Dick and then tapped him on the shoulder becoming visible again just as another gust of cold air burst from the back of his throat.

"That's awesome!" shouted Dick, noticing the shivers for the first time, Danny was so happy this was going well that he flew up to the ceiling and started doing flips, of course that was the moment his powers chose to cut out. Danny's body flashed white turning him human again and he plummeted towards the ground managing to land on his face. Dick laughed as Danny groaned sitting up he said "I haven't quite got control of them yet"

"Yea I noticed that" Dick said with a smile "hey Danny your nose is bleeding" he pointed out.

"Oh great" Danny said throwing his head back and holding his nose shut.

"No, don't do that lean forwards and let the blood out or it will run down the back of your throat and make you sick"

"But I'll get blood all over the carpet"

"Here use this" said Dick passing the waste paper bin to Danny, "let me check to see if its broken, it was looking a little crooked a second ago".

"How would you know if it was broken?" asked Danny

"I took a first aid course at school"

"Oh OK" Danny replied, Dick leant forwards and felt the bridge of Danny's nose,

"Hmm, weird I could have sworn it looked broken a minute ago, and the bleeding is already slowing" Dick said fished some tissues out of his jacket pocket and handing them to Danny "I guess we can add super healing to your list".

"Really?" said Danny in surprise just as another burst of frozen air forced its way out of his mouth.

"Yea probably" replied Dick "is the cold air part of your powers as well?" he asked

"I don't know it just kinda happens randomly, don't know why".

Dick was looking at the oddly coloured blood, it was red but had a green tinge like when oil spilled on the road gives everything a blue tinge. Frowning at it Dick said "look I can understand why you don't want a DNA test but Bruce is a Billionaire he can have it done in a private clinic but we will have to tell him why"

"Can he keep it secret? from what I've heard of him he doesn't seem very reliable, no offence" Danny asked nervously.

"Trust me Bruce is very good at keeping secrets" Dick stated _'I can get Danny's DNA tested in the Bat Cave's lab I think we have enough equipment to do it and if not then we can just get some it's not like Bruce is short on funds'_ he thought to himself ' _plus I can find out more about Danny's powers. Maybe I could get Danny on the team that would be awesome'_ Dick looked at Danny who was still cleaning blood off his face ' _no he's too inexperienced at the moment I'll have to get Bruce to do some training with him first, that's if Bruce agrees to tell Danny who we are.'_ Dick pulled an evidence bag out of his pocket and put a couple of the bloodied tissues into it slipping it back into his jacket when Danny wasn't looking.

"OK I'll trust you" said Danny with a smile, Dick was about to reply when the door burst open slamming against its frame revealing the man who had been forcibly ejected earlier by Maddy.

"That's it, I've given you more than enough time do do whatever the hell it was that you were doing, NOW GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" he yelled going red in the face. Both boys quickly scrambled past the man and out into the corridor, the door slamming shut behind them and locking.

"Your mom might regret upsetting that man later" said Dick nodding to the name plate on the door which read 'Managing director of Science and Technology'

"Pfft nah, my parents are already pariahs of the scientific community because of their wacky theories and inventions, I don't think this will cause any more problems than normal" stated Danny.

"That reminds me do your parents know …"

"No and the're not going to find out"

"What why not? It will only cause more problems in the long run if you don't tell them early on"

"What makes you such an expert? Anyway they think that ghosts can't feel pain and the first one they find there going to rip apart molecule by molecule" Danny said mimicking his fathers voice for the last part.

"So what you're part ghost?" asked Dick

"Did I not mention that?" said Danny scratching the back of his neck. Dick shook his head "oh well I think that's what I am I mean most of my parents research has to do with ghosts especially the thing that shocked me, and it hurt, like a lot, so I just kinda assumed" Dick looked at Danny with concern.

"You think that you're half dead or something?" Dick said finding it hard to believe

"Well its not as though there's anyone around that I can ask about this sorta thing" said Danny getting quieter as they entered the exhibition hall and headed back towards his parents display where Bruce stood chatting with Jack and Maddy.

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 **A/N: I re-wrote this chapter 3 times and I'm still not 100% happy with it I really want to start writing some action scenes but Dick and Danny needed to chat first, but the next chapter we really start to get into the main plot.**

 **Review Response:**

 **So I would normally PM people to respond to reviews but a guest left a review that I really want to respond to. First of all thank you for reading and leaving your review, I love negative reviews just as much as positives because I can use them to improve my writing which is one of my main aims in writing fanfictions. To start with writing sappy drama as you put it is a little outside of my comfort zone which is one of the reasons I wrote it, plus it does tie in with the plot that I have planned. I didn't mean to insinuate that there was a huge mind-blowing twist in the last chapter I thought I would just try something different with them as the twin thing has been done to death and I wanted to do something that would keep their origins (at least robins) as supers canon. I purposely wrote Maddie's reaction to the Grayson name as a little over the top for a few reasons, firstly from the series everything Danny's parents do is a little over the top lol. Secondly, she's is a brilliant scientist who probably over thinks things and although the likely hood is low she worries that Danny will react the same way as Jack did when he found out and that she will loose him. Another reason is something a psychologist friend of mine told me 'when someone overreacts to a situation it is usually because of something associated with the situation and not about it directly', hearing the name Grayson just brings back memories of all those fights with Jack, the time they spent apart and what she went through with the postnatal depression. And finally, what makes you think that she told Danny and Dick everything? I mean her story ties together just a little too neatly don't you think? Also she had about nine years to find the Greysons again and tell them about Danny it wouldn't have been hard they were travelling with a large circus and all she did was type their names into a gloried search engine? I would like to know why you thought the chapter seemed sloppy and if there is anything I could do to change that, thanks for the review and please keep in touch I'd like to know what you think of future chapters.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Danny was wandering around the hall pretending to show an interest in the science on display, the aspiring astronaut in him had been very excited to check out the astroengineering section of the science expo but at the moment his mind was on other things. He was currently walking through the biology section, the tables where littered with 3D diagrams and gooey things floating in jars, he was currently looking at something that looked like a mutated featherless chicken in a cage which according to the sign was the latest attempt at genetically creating a dinosaur.

Danny pulled back in disgust and continued on his walk, ever since the accident he had changed his view on science experiments completely especially when his parents start talking in great detail about the dissections they where going to perform on the first ghost they captured. This lead to some pretty gruesome nightmares of being strapped to a steel table with his parents leaning over him holding surgical instruments.

Putting all thought of tortures aside he started to focus on the issue at hand, he had a half brother, he was confused, his head felt like a huge mix of different emotions and he wasn't sure how to deal with them. He was happy he had a brother _'I mean Dick is pretty cool, he promised to keep my secret and didn't freak out which is good, although he seems to be very clingy, what's with all those hugs?'_ Danny thought shrugging to himself. Once they had gotten back to his parents little display Dick had run right up to Bruce and whispered something in his ear, Bruce nodded and then said "I'm sorry but we must be going now lots to see in here but we will be back" Dick pouted at this and then said

"Can Danny come with us?"

"No" looking at Danny Bruce explained "we're going back to the mansion first I seem to have left my wallet there"

"Oh that's OK Mr Wayne, I'll see you when you get back" Danny said that last part directed at Dick

"See you then Danny, we shouldn't be long" said Dick walking over to Danny and giving him a hug "bye little Bro" he smirked before walking off behind Bruce. Danny had stayed long enough to explain things to Jazz with the help of his Mom before excusing himself saying he had to think about some things.

He was furious with parents, just the fact that they had lied to him his entire life and why did they have to spill the secret here and now of all places. He was just barely holding it together after the accident trying to keep his powers in check was proving a full time thing and he didn't need stuff like this distracting him, it's no wonder that Dick found out. He had no idea how he should feel about his biological father, he had no attachment to him, he never met him and he was dead. Should he be upset with this fact, that he would never get to know him, but he felt nothing at all towards this John Grayson _'I suppose I could always ask Dick about them, tactfully of course, I'll have to ask Sam for pointers'_ Danny was thinking when another burst of cold air came from his throat.

Getting annoyed at the anomaly he tried looking around for its cause _'it's never happened before today so it must be something about being here that's causing it'_ he thought looking around for anything out of the ordinary _'great I'm at a science expo, nothing here is ordinary, that was just stellar, Mensa level brainwaves there genius'_ he berated himself. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed one of the experiments off a nearby table vanish into thin air just as the scientist behind the table turned his back.

* * *

Dick followed Bruce back to the limo which had just pulled up in font of them, Alfred got out to open the door. The two got in the limo which then pulled out into traffic and headed back to the mansion "so Dick mind telling me why you wanted to get back to the cave?" asked Bruce. Dick explained the best he could everything that had happened in-between Danny, Maddie and himself, Bruce kept a neutral expression on his face through the whole conversation asking the odd question to clarify a point. Once Dick finished Bruce looked out of the window deep in thought for several minutes before turning back to Dick and said "you're right it could be a deception but an unusual one at that, it could be easily proven a false if that were the case and judging from his reaction Danny is unaware of it, either that or he is an excellent actor".

"His reaction seemed pretty genuine to me" said Dick "that and accidentally revealing his powers, I think he believes it"

"About his powers, were they unstable? Dangerous? Or just uncontrolled?" asked Bruce

"Just uncontrolled I think, we could probably help with that" Dick hinted, Bruce smiled at his protégé's obvious enthusiasm for having Danny join their ranks.

"One thing at a time Dick, we'll use the equipment at the cave to confirm his DNA is a match to yours and have a look at how his powers have affected his DNA if at all. After that we need to introduce him to things slowly, after all this is a lot to take in."

"So I can tell him who we are?" asked Dick

"Not yet" said Bruce "we will get his parents to agree to send him to the mansion for a weekend or something, then we test him see if he's hero material, having superpowers doesn't automatically make you good at this job".

"but if we really are brothers then we just know he's going to be good at this job" said Dick smugly crossing his arms over his chest with a smile.

The limo pulled up at the mansion and the two jumped out walking into the house and straight into the study, finding the secret passageway they went down into the cave and walked into the medical bay. "OK so which machine do we use?" asked Dick

"I will be using the DNA Chromatography machine in the corner over there, you will sit here and watch as you have no idea what to do do you?" stated Bruce

"Well no but ..."

"Pass me those tissues" said Bruce cutting off an argument before one started, grumbling to himself about not being able to play with the toys Dick pulled out the evidence bag and handed it to Bruce.

* * *

Jazz was getting worried about her brother, he had been gone for about hour and it didn't look like he was coming back any time soon. When he had come back with Dick he had practically ignored their parents and then he had told her all about his parentage, she had been shocked although the similarities between the two boys were now explained she could see that Danny was not taking this well. Oh he put on a good front but Jazz knew Danny better than he thought, she was currently looking through her psychology books to find something that might help Danny. In her head she was silently calling her parents every name under the sun, after Danny had wandered off the two had gotten back to their display chatting with the investors and each other, Maddie had even told jokes. They both looked so happy and relieved it was making Jazz very angry they weren't even considering what Danny was feeling right now they were just happy to get the guilt off their chests.

Vlad then chose that moment to appear at the display and started up a conversation with her parents. Jazz, just like Danny, hated Vlad. He had turned up a few years ago, a friend of her parents from college who had been out of touch for 10+ years all because of an accident that had hospitalised him. She wasn't clear on the details but she had an inkling that her Mom and Dad had something to do with it. He had become a billionaire in the intervening years, although he never talked about how he achieved his wealth. He just turned up saying that he had heard about the Fenton's research and wanted to fund some of their projects, it was all very formal and above board and he was always polite and friendly but something about him just seemed … slimy. That was probably the best word she could come up with to describe the pony-tailed billionaire.

"...and how are you doing today Jazz? Still interested in psychology I see. You know professor Martill at Yale university is a good friend of mine perhaps I could introduce you sometime" said Vlad

"That sounds great Mr Masters" Jazz responded as expected, although she wasn't fooled there was no way she was going to accept a favour from Vlad she knew she would never be free of him if she did. He was always offering to do little favours for their family but she saw straight through his act, he was just trying to get his hooks dug further into their family. Unfortunately her parents, or at least her father, seemed oblivious to this fact. The only thing she couldn't work out was why? Why was he so interested in the Fentons, sure their tech was rather brilliant but through his investments he owned a part of their patents and could easily take them to one of his companies to reproduce and expand upon. ' _Maybe'_ she pondered ' _I should take a lesson from Danny and start being rude about my refusals he might leave me alone then',_ she couldn't maintain eye contact for long and quickly returned to her book and hoped to be ignored. That burning spark in his eyes was disturbing and it unsettled her, it told her that he was unquestionably intelligent and driven, but it also told her that behind his calm professional exterior Vladimir Masters was quite insane.

* * *

"So he is my Brother then?" asked Dick

"Yes, no question about it although his DNA is very strange" said Bruce

"Strange how?"

"It still has the same structure as human DNA and functions in the same way but parts of have been replaced with some unknown substance"

"You can't identify it?"

"Not yet I'm currently running a comparison with every known substance using the caves and the watchtowers databases but nothing yet it could take several hours. What I find fascinating is that it replaces sections of the DNA strand, replicating human DNA almost perfectly but its having some strange effects on the surrounding tissues. I can't know more without more samples though." stated Bruce looking up from his microscope, Dick was no longer in the seat that Bruce had told him to stay sat on but idly pushing buttons on the mass spectrometer. "Dick don't play with that" Bruce said,

"I know what I'm doing"

"I'm sure you do but I'm running Danny's samples in that and I don't want you messing up the results"

"Fine" Dick said moving away from the machine "are we done now, can we go back and talk to Danny?"

"You'll eat first" said Alfred walking in the door, he always tried to get them both to eat whenever they were at the mansion as they where notorious for skipping meals when on a case "Master Dick, Master Bruce I have prepared a light meal for you in the dining room" Alfred waited expectantly by the door as Dick and Bruce exchanged a look.

"Look Alfred we kinda don't have time..." tried Dick

"You'll make time Master Dick, and before you try and escape this" he said holding up a key "is the front door key, I've also taken the liberty to electrify the windows and seal the Batcave until you have both finished eating" both Bruce and Dicks jaws hit the ground.

"Wow, you're really going to extremes to keep us here aren't you?" asked Bruce

"Well frankly master Bruce, I am an excellent cook and too many of my meals are going uneaten as of late. You two need a proper meal and that means more than a protein bar and a coffee whilst on a stake out"

"Hey we had burgers earlier today!" exclaimed Dick

"Yes I remember dropping you outside of McDonalds master Dick" said Alfred turning slightly green at the thought of a burger from there "not exactly a healthy balanced meal". Bruce was growing more amused by the second from Alfred's determination that they should eat a decent meal to Dicks incredulousness about being locked in and threatened if they don't eat by the elderly butler.

"Fine" said Dick throwing his arms in the air and stomping out of the room, Bruce following behind with Alfred bringing up the rear.

* * *

Danny frowned at the spot the item had just disappeared from, glancing around to make sure no one was watching him he squinted trying to channel some of his energy into his eyes. He eyes glowed bright toxic green and the culprit was revealed as a 6 foot tall green octopus with a humanoid face on the bell. ' _A ghost of an octopus?'_ Danny thought to himself slightly puzzled ' _or someone who had an obsession with octopuses, and why is it stealing science projects?'_ he questioned as he noticed that each of its eight limbs where curled around an object no doubt liberated from the tables surrounding him. The ghost rose into the air and was heading for the front of the hall, _'I can't go ghost here and there is nowhere to hide'_ Danny said to himself as he followed the apparition to the end of the hall where it phased through the wall into the street outside.

Danny quickly ran for the doors hoping he hadn't lost sight of it, exiting the building he scanned up and down the street to see the octopus disappearing through the side of an unmarked van parked on the opposite side of the road. Crossing the road he walked up to the van trying to appear as casual as possible, he stood on the drivers side and leant his back against the van and waited for his opening when the street was empty of pedestrians. Once all was clear Danny tried to will himself to pass through the van at his back, nothing happened, "oh come on work!" he whispered to himself and tried again. This time he focused on the feeling he got when he became intangible, the tingly weightless feeling rose from the centre of his chest until it covered his entire body. Smiling to himself he stepped backwards and upwards turning at the same time to view the contents of the van.

The octopus was there along with what looked like it's identical twin, they were packing the items they had just stolen into cardboard boxes when they noticed his presence. Danny felt for that cooling sensation which allowed him to transform, a white ring appeared around his waist and spilt in two travelling up and down his body to reveal his alter-ego. The two octopuses looked at him in shock for a moment before turning into a menacing grin, the two charged at him. Danny took a step to the side allowing one of them to hit the side of the van, the other slammed straight into Danny who threw a punch at it's face. They both backed off for a second in which Danny said "look I don't know who you are but you're going to return those things you stole" the octopuses let of an ear splitting screech before charging at Danny again this time Danny wasn't quick enough and both of them hit him.

Turning intangible just before hitting the side of the van Danny was thrown across the street and through a wall back into the exhibition hall.

Bruce and Dick entered the exhibition hall yet again just in time to see it descend into chaos, people were rushing for the door many of them screaming about monsters. The two ran forwards to see Danny of all people, white haired and glowing, suddenly crash into one of the displays, he looked towards them and shouted "Dick get out of here! its not safe!" just as a green octopus appeared in front of him. The octopus grabbed Danny by his ankle and flung him into the air where another green octopus was hovering. Danny managed to use the momentum of the throw and turn himself in the air kicking the ghost in the head sending it to crash into a wall.

Dick was about to reach into his pocket to take out his utility belt when Bruce put out his arm stopping him "lets see how he does first" said Bruce

"What? but Danny hasn't fought before as far as we know" complained Dick

"True but there are always first fights, its better if we don't intervene, this is the time Danny decides if this is what he wants to be doing. Besides we don't have any equipment that can harm ghosts". Dick thought for a second before saying with a grin

"Maybe we don't but the Fentons do"

"True, you had best go and keep them busy then because they don't know their son is a ghost and might just attack him if they show up now" explained Bruce. Dick paled at that his smirk vanishing

"OK I'll keep the Fentons busy, but you'll make sure that if Danny gets into trouble you'll help him"

"Of course" said Bruce as an explosion sounded behind them throwing up a cloud of dust "your brother might just destroy this place if this keeps up" he commented dryly as Danny was seen throwing an octopus onto the floor where it burst sending green droplets flying burning holes in many surrounding displays. The octopus reformed looking smaller and tired, Danny charged it again, the octopus made itself intangible sending Danny crashing to the floor, Bruce winced in sympathy before going to lean against the closest wall and continue watching. The two octopuses charged him again one from either direction, Danny grabbed a pole being used to hold up a banner and swung it at one other octopuses causing it to collide with one of the displays. Danny then disappeared into the ground just as the other octopus was about to collide with his back, he re-emerged behind the octopus and swung at it with the pole sending it to hit it's comrade just as it was getting up.

The boy had talent conceded Bruce, he was largely untrained but he had a good stance and could improvise, he recalled Dick telling him Maddie knew karate it would seem that Danny had received a little training after all. However he had no fighting experience that much was evident and he was creating too much destruction around himself, not controlling the fight as he should be. His opponents where a challenge for him now but with a couple of months of training he could take down amateurs like these with ease. It was them Bruce noticed someone else, Vlad Masters was standing in much the same pose as Bruce about halfway around the hall. Masters was totally engrossed in the fight and didn't even glance in Bruce's direction, his face showed extreme annoyance but interest to. _'Why is he still in here everyone else has gone, or does he have a vested interest in this fight'_ Bruce thought to himself.

A green blob suddenly hit the wall to the side of Bruce, it formed into a small octopus ghost about the size of his fist. It looked exhausted and slumped to the ground in defeat. The other ghost was enraged by this and wrapped all of its tentacles around Danny who was floating in the air and started to squeeze. Danny was struggling but couldn't free himself, the green limbs were getting tighter forcing all of the breath from his body _'lucky I don't need to breath in this form'_ Danny thought to himself. Danny's eyes widened and he screamed in pain as he felt a rib crack, Bruce decided this was time to step in, he ducked behind a table and the threw a batarang at the ghost hitting it and slicing off one of its limbs. The ghost let go of the boy and reared back in pain, Danny took the opportunity to land a punch on the ghosts' face putting everything he had into the hit and sending the ghost to splat against the ground.

The ghost re-formed sluggishly being about half it's original size, it flew over the the wall and picked up it's friend throwing one glance back in Danny's direction the two phased through the wall and flew away as fast as they could. Danny sighed in relief and allowed himself to float down to the ground, he was exhausted and just wanted to sleep for a week when Batman suddenly stepped out from behind one of the tables. Danny's jaw dropped, THE Batman was stood in-front of him complete with cape, cowl and scowl, the only thing stopping Danny from going all fanboy was the exhaustion pulling his eyelids down and making his knees weak. "we need to talk" Batman said, Danny just nodded dumbly hearing a noise behind him he turned sideways and looked over his shoulder to see Robin grappling down from the rafters.

"You put up quite a show" Robin laughed "I'm impressed"

"Thanks" responded Danny

"You took care of the Fentons?" asked Batman directing the question at Robin

"Yea I just gave them wrong directions, said the ghost was in the park at the back of the University" said Robin

"Wait why did you do that? they have anti-ghost weaponry they could have helped me, and why didn't you jump in and help me fight?" Danny asked feeling confused

"They would probably have been shooting at you as well" commented Robin

"And I don't make a habit of interfering in other heroes battles, but I was here in case it got out of hand" explained Batman "now do you mind explaining why these ghosts were attacking?" he asked.

"I caught them stealing some of the tech and experiments here" Danny said gesturing to the half destroyed displays around him "they have been putting them in a silver van outside on the street"

"OK thank you, we will return the stolen items and apprehend anyone involved" said Batman

"Can I tell him now please?" Robin asked Batman

"No, not here but later" Batman said strictly

"Yes!" said Robin with a fist pump

"Erm tell me what? What's going on?"

"Don't worry Danny you'll know in time, now we have to be going, get some rest you look exhausted" said Batman then he and robin both threw down pellets causing smoke to obscure Danny's vision, once it cleared the dynamic duo where both gone. Danny sighed and turned invisible he drifted off to find an abandoned office to transform in where there weren't any cameras.

* * *

The exhibition hall had been closed after the ghost attack, luckily only a few displays had been wrecked and the stolen items had been returned. Those with broken displays where quickly running around the city trying to secure replacement materials so they could open again tomorrow for the public opening of the exhibition. Luckily the fight had taken place in the theoretical physics section of the hall so there were few experiments that could have been destroyed, and the Fenton's display was in the weapons section and had not suffered in the slightest. The Fentons themselves had returned after an hour running around the park with ghost weapons to find Danny lay under the table sleeping.

They nudged him awake and then started to pack up for the day and getting everything ready for the next day. Bruce and Dick then reappeared at their display "Mr Wayne did you see more of the exhibit?" asked Maddie

"I did yes unfortunate some of the damage from those intruders mean I haven't seen everything but I can come back tomorrow, I'm even offering a small donation to allow all of these academics to repair any damage" Bruce explained

"That was very generous of you Mr Wayne" said Jazz "have you chosen anything to invest in today?"

"Oh it was nothing, and there are several promising projects I'm thinking of investing in, of course these things are never done during the day but in several weeks time once the public has seen them and I can gauge their response the the projects" he explained.

"I see" said Jazz dejectedly, if Bruce wanted projects with a good PR then her parents where doomed in getting any funding this year.

"I actually came to ask Mr and Mrs Fenton if Danny could stay with us this week at Wayne manor?" asked Dick, the two eccentric inventors looked at each other for a moment, "I mean we're brothers and I'd like to get to know him and I'm sure he feels the same way we're family"

"Well I suppose that we won't need his help with the exhibition after today" Maddie said reluctantly.

"Awesome so he can come then, I'm sure Jazz can cover for Danny if you do need anything" Dick said,

"OK" Maddie relented "but the last day of the exhibition is Saturday he will need to be back here by then so we can take him home"

"That's not a problem Mrs Fenton but if you like I can have Danny dropped off at your home on Sunday night so he is home for school on Monday" said Bruce

"Oh no, we'll need his help to pack up the display and get everything into the RV" said Jack

"Saturday it is then" confirmed Bruce.

"Where is Danny anyway?" asked Dick frowning, Jazz gave an evil smile and pointed at the table, Dick crouched down and lifted the cloth to reveal a sleeping Danny curled up under the table in the foetal position sucking on a thumb. Giving off his trademark laugh Dick brought out his camera phone and snapped a picture, the light from the flash woke Danny who sat up banging his head on the table. Maddie frowned in disapproval at her sons antics

"Really Danny you should go to bed earlier you wouldn't be so tired then" she said

"OK Danny where are your bags" asked Dick.

"Bags?" Danny asked confused

"You'll be staying with us for the rest of the week Danny" explained Bruce

"Seriously?"

"Yep" said Dick with much enthusiasm.

"They're in the RV" Danny said

"Here" said Jack holding out some keys "this is the key to the RV, you can grab your bags, now don't break anything in there and bring the keys straight back OK?" looking in Danny's eyes to impress upon him his seriousness.

"OK, no problem" said Danny nervously as he took the keys and then walked off with Dick to collect his things.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Danny had fallen asleep again in the limo back to the manor, literally mid-sentence, he was snoring and drooling against the leather seats. Dick smirked and took another picture with his phone, he turned to Bruce to show him the pic and noticed the worried look on his face. "What's up Bruce?"

"By my estimates he fought those ghost for about fifteen minutes, he shouldn't be this exhausted"

"Yea but it was his first fight"

"Mmm it might be more than that" Bruce said sliding open a hidden panel in the side of the limo he pulled out a small sliver metal band, sliding over to Danny he placed the band around his wrist. The band contracted until it was in contact with Danny's skin all around.

"Erm what's that?" Asked Dick

"Something new from Wayne enterprises, it will be available to emergency services next year" Bruce stated pulling out a tablet from the same compartment as the band "the idea came from these exercise trackers people are buying nowadays but it registers more than what they do, as well as tracking heart rate it does blood pressure, skin temperature, blood oxygenation, glucose and leucocyte levels."

"OK what's it telling you?"

"Danny's glucose levels are very low and his leucocyte levels are high, did you say Danny has advanced healing?"

"I think so, he broke his nose earlier and it healed within a few minutes, it's not instantaneous but a lot faster than human norms" Dick said with a confused frown.

"And has Danny eaten today that you know of?"

"I don't know, I gave him a hot chocolate but I didn't see him eat anything but it's not like I was around him all day".

Bruce nodded tapping away at his tablet as it displayed more of Danny's vitals "his heartbeat is slow and thready as well, something I learned from the Flash is that you can have all the advanced healing in the world but it won't do you any good if your body doesn't have the materials to replace the damaged tissue. I think he may have broken something during that fight judging by his increased leucocyte levels" Bruce explained to Dick. Handing the boy the tablet he moved Danny so he was lying flat on his back on the couch and them moved his shirt up exposing a large black and green bruise running around his chest where the ghost had squoze him earlier, it seemed particularly bad on the boys right side. Bruce gently put a hand on the boy's chest feeling the ribs underneath, Danny squirmed in his sleep obviously in pain.

Bruce walked to the front of the limo and knocked on the glass, the window slid open to reveal Alfred driving "forget about the scenic route Alfred get up back to the mansion as quick as you can"

"Very well master Bruce" Alfred replied stepping on the accelerator.

"He'll be OK yea?" asked Dick a little worried for his younger brother, Bruce smiled back reassuringly

"Of course, we just need to get him on an IV so his body can recover it's no big problem, he could probably recover on his own but it would take a few days. With his advanced healing abilities though all he needs is some sugar and nutrients in his system to get him back on his feet and then a big meal so he can finish healing."

Dick smiled as he was struck by a thought "so you're saying that he broke a rib and decided to sleep it off" laughing Dick pointed at Danny as said "he's almost as bad as me and now you've got two of us look after".

Bruce frowned disapprovingly and slipped into his Batman voice "I will have to have a talk with Danny about this, it could have been a lot worse"

* * *

Danny groggily opened his eyes and looked around to see he was in some kind of hospital room, that is if it was combined with a high tech laboratory. Danny panicked and tried to sit up to find he was strapped down, with one strap running over his chest and others securing his wrists and ankles to the bed. Danny struggled against them for a minute before hearing a faint snoring looking to one side he saw Dick dozing in a chair to the side of the bed.

"Erm Dick?" Danny said getting no response from the teenager, "Diiiick" he said again with no reaction, growing annoyed Danny shouted "DICK! WAKE UP!" Dick sprung from his chair and took on battle ready stance that Danny recognised from his mothers martial arts training. Seeing Danny awake Dick dropped out of the stance and approached the bed with a smile,

"Hey Danny, what's up?" he asked

"What's up? That's the question you're going with?" asked Danny

"Yep"

"Why am I in a hospital room and tied down?"

"You passed out in the limo, Bruce is pissed you didn't tell us you were injured, but you're looking better now" said Dick, Danny winced in apology.

"I didn't realize it was that bad, besides how would I explain it to anyone"

"This is one of those reasons to tell your parents your secret"

"Not a chance, so why am I strapped down again" asked Danny. Dick sighed at the change of subject before explaining with a slight smile,

"you fight in your sleep, and you managed to kick Bruce in a ... sensitive area whilst he was putting your IV in"

"Oh" said Danny sheepishly "sorry"

"Ha apologise to him yourself he's just outside" Dick said with a smirk, Danny was looking around in confusion as his straps where undone and the IV taken out.

"Where are we anyway" he asked

"Wayne Manor" said Dick grinning at Danny "well underneath it actually"

"Underneath?" asked an utterly bewildered Danny.

"You'll see in a minute, can you stand OK, how are you feeling?" Dick asked as his brother got to his feet.

"A little light headed but I'm OK" reassured Danny, the two boys walked to the door Dick staying close to the younger boy's side in case he lost his balance or something. The pair stepped out of the room and into a much larger space, Danny looked around in confusion seeing several large vehicles on what looked like show room turntables to one side and a wall filled with computer screens on the other side. Looking up he noticed the roof way over head was covered in stalactites _'I'm in a cave under Wayne manor full of Billionaire's high tech toys?'_ he thought to himself, then he noticed the display cases scattered everywhere containing a strange assortment of objects. Danny looked at the few closest to him as he strolled over the the computers where Bruce was sitting, the teen came to a sudden halt when he recognised the object in one of the cases. The case contained a long black cloak that had a tear down one side, under the cloak was an armoured black suit and suspended over the whole ensemble was Batman's mask.

A movement behind Danny caused the boy to look at the reflection in the glass as Bruce stood up and faced him, Bruce's reflection lined up perfectly with the suit contained in the case "penny in the air" muttered Dick. Danny's eyes widened as he realised and spun to face Dick and Bruce,

"You!... You're?" said Danny, then turning to Dick he looked his brother up and down and then said "and you... you must be?" Danny gaped.

"Penny drops" Dick smirked

"Yes Danny, Dick and I help to protect Gotham and the world as Batman and Robin. You must understand that we're only allowing you to know this because you are Dick's brother. Also know that this is a secret you must keep from everybody, your friends and family and even other heroes, can you promise me that Danny?" Bruce asked in a serious voice maintaining eye contact with the boy. Danny nodded dumbly "I need to hear you say it Danny" said Bruce kindly realising that the boy was probably feeling a little overwhelmed,

"I promise" Danny croaked

"Awesome!" exclaimed Dick "we've talked, and if you want we can train you to do better at fighting. I mean … that is if you want to go into the hero biz, you were great today fighting those ghosts so we think with some training..."

"Dick take it easy, I don't think Danny was listening anyway" Bruce gestured towards Danny who was shaking on the spot with tears running down his face. Danny had no idea why he was crying _'I'm not upset or hurt so why the hell can't I stop crying'_ he thought a sob escaping his lips, Dick rushed forwards and enveloped his brother in a hug.

"Hey little bro, it'll be ok" said Dick rubbing soothing circles into the other teens back,

"Sorry" Danny apologised "just being stupid"

"Hey don't be like that, you've gone through a lot today I understand. You're probably exhausted as-well" stated Dick, Danny's stomach took the opportunity to make its displeasure known with a loud groan.

All three of them chuckled then Bruce suggested "why don't you head up to the kitchen and see if Alfred will make you something to eat then Dick can show you your room and you can get some rest"

"Sure come on Danny, Alfred is seriously the best cook in North America you're gonna love it" Dick said pulling Danny up the stairs and towards the kitchen.

* * *

It had been one fun but exhausting week staying at the Wayne manor, Danny contemplated as Alfred drove him back to the exhibition so he could help his parents pack to head home to Amity Park. The first day at the manor Bruce had let him sleep in to regain some of his energy, he had woken at 10am with a massive headache and an empty stomach. After am excellent breakfast/lunch (Alfred really was an excellent cook) he had gone down to the Batcave and had a long discussion one-on-one with Bruce. Bruce had wanted to offer to train Danny and help him get a grip on his powers, he had also made sure that Danny knew what he was getting into explaining that working as a hero is not an easy life, that he would probably get hurt at some point and that not everyone would appreciate him for what he did.

Danny was humbled by the speech, especially when Bruce started to go into examples from his own experience of how things can go wrong and the sacrifices he has made. Bruce then wanted to examine Danny to learn more about his abilities, he had taken blood samples and x-rays then put him in a CAT scanner. Danny couldn't believe that Bruce had all of this in his basement and was a little jealous comparing everything to the ghost lab in his basement at home _'the spectre speeder is an antiquated tin can compared to the Batmobile'_ Danny thought to himself going over to the car and taking a good look through one of the windows whilst not daring to actually touch the famous vehicle.

"Danny" said Bruce calling the teenager away from the toys "can you identify this substance?, it is in your DNA and in your blood it think it is also interfering with the scanners all of your images keeping coming out blurred" asked Bruce pointing a the computer in font of him that was displaying a chemical formula

"Oh sure that's ectoplasm" said Danny matter of fact,

"Ectoplasm?"

"Yea its the substance that ghosts are made of, I told you that I'm half ghost, it's all in my parents research if you find one of their papers you can read all about it" Danny stated growing a little bored.

"OK I'll do that" said Bruce noticing the signs of a teenager loosing interest he added "Why don't you go and find Dick, I'm sure he'd love to challenge you to an X-box game or something" he finished somewhat lamely. The rest of the day was filled with a tour of the mansion, computer games and watching Dick perform some gymnastics. Danny had a go at the gymnastics but cheated and used his powers which of course Dick spotted, Danny smiled to himself remembering the wrestling match that followed when Dick called him a dirty cheater and tackled him to the ground.

The rest of the week that followed was not so relaxed, he was woken by Alfred at 5 am everyday as Bruce said they wanted to cram as much training into him as they could before the end of the week, although they never explained why this was so important. He had martial arts training in the mornings with Dick until lunch, afterwards he worked with Bruce on developing and controlling his powers for a couple of hours. This was exhausting, Bruce had him doing everyday tasks with his powers such as cleaning a room by phasing the dust off objects to get more control, he also had Danny stay intangible and invisible for as long as he can and to remain floating in the air the whole time. At first he could only manage it for about half an hour before he was on his hands and knees panting with exhaustion but he could now maintain it for about three hours.

During this he kept handing Danny snacks and energy bars, he explained in more detail what had made Danny pass out in the car after his first fight and told Danny to make sure he kept eating as he would consume more energy when using his powers. Mid way through the week Bruce presented Danny with a black wrist band, "What's this a fitness tracker?" asked Danny the echo in his voice no longer affecting the dynamic duo.

"It's more than that although that's all it will look like to the casual observer, I want you to transform into your human form and put it on" said Bruce

"OK" said Danny transforming and dropping to the ground, he placed the band over his left wrist. The band contracted until it was firmly in contact with his skin, then a small display appeared showing the time. "sweet so it's like a high tech watch?" Bruce rolled his eyes at the black haired teen.

"It does a lot more than that, should you ever get in trouble you can use it to send a distress signal also if we ever need you it will alert you and tell you where the nearest zeta tube is so you can reach us quickly. It will also monitor your vitals and tell you if you need to get something to eat and should they drop below normal, well normal for you that is, it will alert one of us" explained Bruce "I've adapted it specifically for you by using ectoplasm in its construction so it should stay with you in your ghost form, I want you to transform back now and we'll see what it does."

"Awesome OK here goes" said Danny as he reached for the now familiar cold feeling in his chest to transform the white ring appeared at his middle and split revealing his ghost form, the watch changed from black to white and grew larger so it looked more like a watch and less like a small fitness tracker. The display also changed showing and outline of Danny's body with a readout of his vitals to one side, "well I think we can call that a success" said Bruce "and it gives me some more ideas of things you might need and now I know how to make sure they combine with your ghost form."

"I know of something else you need" said Dick looking at his brother who was floating upwards playing with the touch screen watch,

"What?" said Danny distractedly

"A hero name" stated Dick getting excited "we can't keep calling you Danny in the field can we?"

"Oh" Danny said his attention returning to Dick "I've already had a thought, how about" Danny put his hand on his hips and puffed out his chest "Danny Phantom!" Dick smiled at his brothers enthusiasm.

"That's great but how about just Phantom putting Danny on there kinda gives away your secret identity"

"Oh" said Danny a little put out "yea I suppose that's better"

"Oh yea Danny I've been meaning to ask, are you going to tell your parents about your powers?" asked Bruce. Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously

"Maybe, eventually, I'm just not ready for them to know yet" Bruce glared slightly at Danny.

"Well it's your choice but if you do decide to tell them then make sure you let us know first, if your secret identity becomes compromised it will compromise ours as well you need to be very careful who you tell so ask for permission first OK?" asked Bruce.

"Er sure Bruce but two of my friends back home already know I'm part ghost, I mean they were there when I got my powers" Danny said with a wince looking away.

"Well that can't be helped, but you will not tell them who we are, are we clear?"

"Of course, I will never give away your secret" said Danny slightly appalled at the thought of breaking Dick and Bruce's trust. After that they had scanned Danny in both his forms so that he could use the zeta beams and Bruce explained that he was currently having one installed in Amity so Danny could travel to and from the cave when needed.

In the evenings after dinner Bruce and Dick took the time to show Danny how many of the gadgets, gizmos and computer systems of the cave worked, it was quite a laid back way to end a very strenuous day of training. Danny was pretty sure that Bruce was working on creating a utility belt for Danny, one that would work with his ghost form, he had once overheard Bruce and Dick talking about the possibilities of infusing material with ectoplasm with his enhanced hearing but they quickly stopped talking when he entered the room. He knew that whatever they were doing was supposed to be a surprise so he continued to pretend to be oblivious.

At the end of the week Danny had packed his bags and was getting ready to leave when both Dick and Bruce walked into his room with grim looks on their faces, "look Danny" began Dick "there's something we have been keeping from you this week but it was only because we wanted you to concentrate on your training and not get distracted."

"What is it?" asked Danny growing worried

"It seems that the media has somehow caught wind of your relation to Dick" explained Bruce with a sympathetic look. "They have been standing at the gates to the manor since Tuesday wanting to get a glimpse of you and they have also been to Amity interviewing people there" with that Bruce passes a tablet to Danny showing several articles concerning Danny, he parents, his school, one site even had an interview with Dash and Paulina. Strangely to two biggest bullies in school were claiming to be his friends and were being very nice about him which was a surprise, there was not a single mention of Sam and Tucker.

"OK what do I do about this?" asked Danny

"Well do you want to talk to the media?" countered Bruce

"No definitely not" said Danny putting the tablet down with a sigh.

"Then don't worry about it, I'll deal with the media, it's only celebrity gossip after all I'll have Wayne enterprises issue a statement. I've also taken the liberty of opening a bank account for you" said Bruce handing Danny a card "this is for essentials only and for if you get into trouble and need some money" Bruce stated strictly "I will be monitoring your usage, also as you're now in the public eye you might have to show yourself at some social engagements with me and Dick. Charity benefits and the like you can use the card to get yourself a proper suit" with that Bruce left the room calling over his shoulder "see you next weekend Danny, have a good week at school."

Dick had followed Danny out to the car and hugged the younger teen goodbye saying something about taking Danny to meet some of his friends next weekend. Danny stepped from the limo and was bombarded with questions from the six reporters that had been standing in front of the exhibition hall, Danny just ignored them and pushed through with Alfred's help entered the hall and went in search of his parents.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"...and now to the latest celebrity news. It has recently been revealed that one Daniel Jack Fenton from Amity Park, Illinois is the younger brother of none other than Richard Grayson, ward to billionaire and owner of Wayne enterprises Bruce Wayne. It is still unclear what Mr Fenton's origins are and how he came to be in the care or Drs Madeline and Jack Fenton, and why he has remained unknown until now. The Fentons declined to talk with our reporters however Bruce Wayne released this statement earlier this week." The reporter for action news said as her image on the TV was replaced with Bruce Wayne standing behind a podium talking as occasional flashes from camera men lit the scene.

"... we have confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that Daniel Fenton is indeed Richard Graysons younger brother, I am not at liberty to discuss the conditions that led to this as the Fenton family have asked to keep the matter private. We will accept Daniel and the rest of the Fentons into our small family whole heartedly and we hope they feel the same way. I will not be adopting or assuming the role of guardian over Daniel as he has his own loving family who are more than able to provide for him therefore the existence of Mr Fenton in no way affects the future of Wayne Enterprises. Thank you" said Bruce before walking off the stage to shouted questions from the gathered journalists.

The screen switched to the reporter again who said "we now go to some earlier interviews with Mr Fenton's close friends Dash Baxter and Paulina Sanchez.."

"Oh turn it off Sam" moaned Danny who was lying on his bed face buried in a pillow as the TV droned on. Sam was sat in a chair beside his bed and Tucker was sat cross-legged on the floor disassembling a smartphone,

"What is your celebrity status not to your liking?" teased Sam

"Look it's bad enough that my personal life is suddenly a point of interest to the entire world but it's been like two weeks since it became public knowledge. The rest of the world has moved on but here in Amity the news just keeps repeating the same story over and over." explained Danny with much annoyed arm waving.

"I know, you've been back a week and fought how many ghosts?" asked Tucker

"Er lets see" said Danny sitting up and starting to count them off on his fingers "there was those two octopus ghosts again, the Lunch Lady, the dragon amulet thing, Skulker, Technus and Poindexter"

"Good job you're not keeping score" said Sam with a raised eyebrow

"My point is" explained Tucker "Phantom's fights with the ghosts are barely getting a mention on the news but human you is the talk of the town."

"Yea that is weird" commented Sam "maybe Bruce is doing something to try and keep your ghost half out of the news."

"Mmm, maybe, I don't think Bruce would do that though he was very keen for me to keep my powers to myself and not go heroing." After asking Bruce if he should tell his friends that Bruce and Dick knew his secret the caped crusader had told Danny to make it as though Bruce Wayne didn't like superpowers and disapproved of heroes. Unfortunately Danny was a terrible liar and Sam threw him a suspicious look as Tucker remained oblivious but whatever she was thinking she decided to keep to herself for which Danny was eternally grateful. "Hey Tuck what are you doing?" asked Danny trying to change the subject.

"I bought this smartphone second hand, it has some components I need for my next invention" he explained

"And what would this invention be?" asked Sam

"You'll just have to wait and find out" said Tucker with a smile.

"OK then, well I have to head home it's getting late, will I see you two tomorrow?"

"Yea, and I might head off too, my parents will freak if I miss curfew" said Tucker gathering up his tools and scattered components.

"Er well you won't see me this weekend guys, I'm going over to Wayne manor again" explained Danny nervously.

"Oh well, we'll see you Monday then for school?" asked Sam

"Sure thing, I'm gonna need your help to keep those new fans of mine off my back" he said jokingly

"Haha no problem dude, by the way does this make us the cool kids now" Tucker said with a laugh.

"Oh definitely" Danny replied giving Tucker a fist bump, Sam just rolled her eyes and said something under her breath that sounded like 'boys' before grabbing Tuckers collar and dragging him with her as they left the room both of them calling "bye Danny" over their shoulders.

* * *

"Recognised, Phantom B-0-7" called the computer in monotone as the black haired teen stepped out of the zeta tube into the Batcave carrying a duffel bag on one shoulder.

"Hi Danny" called Robin

"Hi Dick"

"Robin" he corrected

"Right you're in costume" said Danny

"Uniform" he corrected again "saying costume makes it sound like I'm on my way to a Halloween party" Robin explained,

"Oh sorry" Danny apologised rubbing the back of his neck.

"Just make sure you don't slip up in future, think of our hero selves as separate people so you only call us by that name in front of other people when we're suited up"

"Don't worry it won't happen again" said Danny with a smile "so is there a reason why you're suited up?" he asked.

"Yea I was waiting for you, Batman is on patrol so I said I would take you to meet the team"

"Great, erm what team?"

"A team for young superheroes, we do covert missions for the league"

"Really? That's so awesome!" exclaimed Danny,

"Yea we'd like you to join, well I'd like you to join but we have to see if the team likes you yet"

"So when are we going?" Danny asked excitedly.

"In a minute, drop your bag over there Alfred will take care of it later, Batman made these for you" said Robin pointing at a table with two objects on it. From this distance Danny could see one looked like a folded piece of cloth and the other was recognisably a black utility belt similar to the one Robin was currently wearing. Danny gaped at them for a minute before walking forwards to inspect the items, picking up the utility belt first he noticed it was much smaller than Robin's with less pouches and would probably go unnoticed if he wore it in his human form. The belt did have a number of pouches along its length.

"We noticed you got into some fights with ghosts this week so we made some ghost fighting gadgets based off your parents technology. We didn't have to include some bulky items like a grappling hook what with you being able to fly and stuff so you can keep it on you at all times. It also has a holographic circuit built in, it activates automatically once you go ghost so that if you accidentally turn back into Fenton you'll still look like Phantom. To turn it off just press this button at the side here" said Robin pointing to a flat square patch on the side of the belt "its a thumb scanner so it will only work for you. We managed to infuse it with ectoplasm so it will stay with you when you transform, same idea with the cloak" Robin explained.

"This is amazing" said Danny in awe as he pulled out several black and white disks instantly knowing they where the same multi-use explosives that Robin used. He turned his attention to the cloak picking it up and wrapping it around his shoulders to see how it felt.

"We wanted to give you a new uniform as that hazmat suit isn't exactly made for combat, but after last week when we tried to get you to change it, only to have it reappear with your next transformation we had to compromise. Again it should stay with you when you transform only we tried to make this slightly differently so it will disappear when you turn human again." explained Robin "it's made of a similar material to mine and Batman's cloaks so it's fire proof excreta excreta"

Danny frowned when Robin was being rude about his hazmat suit, sure his human half hated the things but he had died … well half died in that hazmat suit so he was kinda attached to it ' _hmm maybe that's why it keeps reappearing each time I transform'_ Danny thought to himself. "Hey! my hazmat suit is resistant to acid and chemicals and electricity to a degree" he complained, Robin just raised an eye brow unimpressed.

"Mmmhmm" he hummed "remind me how was it you got your powers again?" asked Robin sarcastically, Danny just dropped his head and fidgeted, uncomfortable with talking about his almost death. Dick and Bruce had not taken the news well the first time around, learning that ghosts were real was quite a shock for most people, finding out your newly discovered half brother was at least partially deceased was not something Dick was ready to accept. Bruce had done his own research and reached the conclusion that Danny was telling the truth as incredible as that seemed. Bruce had been weird towards Danny the rest of that day, he became softly spoken as though he was trying not to upset Danny and kept getting this sad, understanding expression on his face every time he looked at Danny. Luckily he snapped out of it by the next day as it was making Danny uncomfortable. Dick however blindly refused to believe ghosts were real and not just some beings from an alternate dimension, he thought of Danny as simply another meta-human. Danny knew precisely why Dick thought like this so he let his brother keep his delusion, it was kinder Danny though _'Dick will realise the truth when he's ready for it'_.

Breaking the awkward silence Robin said "well then put them on and transform so we can go to the cave"

"We're already in the cave" said Danny in confusion, Robin face-palmed before responding.

"The cave at Mount Justice, it's where the team is based" he explained "not all of them are there right now as Batman gave them a couple of days off but you can meet Superboy and Miss Martian, Kid Flash promised to drop by later in the day to meet you as well"

"So we're just going there to hang out?" asked Danny as he was trying to put the belt through the loops on his jeans.

"Yep but if your joining us on missions it will be good for everyone to meet you sooner rather than later" shrugged Robin, Danny had finally gotten the belt clipped and the cloak attached to his shoulders. Feeling slightly ridiculous wearing these with a white t-shirt and jeans he transformed the rings separating and inverting his colours, the belt and outside of the cloak turned white, the inside of the cloak was black. "hmm, I wasn't expecting that, a white cloak will be a bit conspicuous on covert missions" commented Robin,

"One sec" said Danny, he grabbed the cloak and scrunched his eyes in concentration. The cloak changed again looking like black ink spreading over the surface from Danny's fingers the cloak shrank slightly fitting to Danny's frame better as the edges became slightly ragged and moved making it look like Danny's back was bathed in black flames. Robin walked forwards and touched the cloak, impressed despite himself. The black colour seemed to absorb light having no sheen to it making it look like a patch of the air was missing to be replaced by nothingness however he could still feel the fabric of the cloak under his fingers. "do you like it?" asked Danny.

"It's awesome, how did you do that?"

"I learnt this week that some of my parents inventions don't really work unless I channel some ghost energy into them first so I thought I would try the same with this. It takes energy to maintain though so I wont be able to keep it up" Danny explained, stopping the flow of energy into the cloth which once again became white.

"OK well that solves that problem, now lets go to the cave" said Robin moving towards the Zeta portal with Danny trailing behind.

* * *

 **A/N: only a short chapter this time but I'm going to be busy for the next few days and won't be able to update until the middle of next week so I thought I would give you a taste to keep you interested. Don't forget to Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 **A/N: Hi all, I'm really sorry it took me this long to update but I have just started a new Job and have been incredibly busy for the past few weeks so please forgive me :) I hope you like this Chapter and as usual any and all reviews are appreciated thanks.**

* * *

Danny followed Robin as they walked out of the zeta tubes into very large room, obviously underground and with some kind of large machine suspended from the ceiling. Danny remembered his training and tried to memorise everything of note in the room of course the first thing he noticed were the three people standing in the centre. The first person his attention went to was the green skinned woman, his ghost sense hadn't gone off and she lacked any noticeable glow so Danny assumed this must be Miss Martian that Robin told him about. Standing close to her side was a tall black haired teen wearing a black t-shirt with a red superman symbol in the centre of his chest _'that must be superboy'_ Danny thought to himself. The third person Danny knew instantly, he had seen Black Canary on TV often enough to recognise her.

A bit in awe and nervous of the people in front of him Danny started floating off the ground and didn't even notice until Robin put a hand on his shoulder pushing him back onto his feet. "Hey everybody I'd like to introduce Phantom" said Robin pulling Danny forwards until he was standing in front of the others "Phantom this is Miss Martian"

"Please call me Megan" said the Martian smiling at Danny "it's nice to meet you, Robin has been telling us all about you."

"All good things I hope" said Danny smiling back at Megan

"This is superboy" Robin introduced the Kriptonian

"Hey" superboy grunted sticking out a hand for Danny to shake, Danny took the hand shaking enthusiastically.

"It's good to meet you" said Danny taking his hand back and trying to subtly flex his fingers at his side after having his hand crushed.

"And this is Black Canary" Robin said introducing the last person in the room

"It's great to have you here Phantom" Canary said "I'll be training you along with the rest of the team, in-fact if you're OK with it we could do some training now, it might help to break the ice"

"Er yea sure, with or without powers?" Danny asked "and who am I fighting?"

"We'll try with powers to begin I want to see what you're capable of so we can see how you will fit in the team" Canary explained "and I want you to fight Miss Martian, from what I hear your powers are similar so it should be a challenge for both of you". Phantom and Miss Martian stepped into the centre and the other four walked off to the sides as the circle on the floor lit up "the aim is to get the other person on the floor"

"OK I'm ready" said Phantom pushing off from the floor slightly so he was floating in the air once again.

"So am I" said Ms Martian "this is going to be fun" she said rising off the ground to match Phantoms height

"Begin" shouted canary. Phantom immediately turned invisible, Miss Martian smiled and said

"two can play at that game" as she activated her camouflage.

"There's a big difference between my invisibility and your camouflage" Phantom said, the echo in his voice making it impossible to pinpoint it's origin "Batman made me read up on all of the teams powers before I came here and I know that as soon as you move I'll be able to see you from the light distortion that you cause" he laughed the echo making it seem very creepy and malicious sending a shiver down everyones spines. Apart from Robin that is who just smiled as he remembered teaching Phantom that trick, there's nothing quite like a creepy laugh to unnerve your enemies.

Miss Martian floated in the centre of the ring, she couldn't find Danny by any of the normal methods so she decided to use telepathy, closing her eyes she was about to cast her mind outwards when she felt a cold breeze against her back and a whisper in her ear "got ya!" a sudden force surged into her body and tried to take control of her. Megan panicked and slammed her mental shields down hard, the invading force was very cold and strong but she noticed it wasn't trying to invade her mind in-fact it was trying to push her mind out of the way and take over control of her body. She smirked at this realisation, Megan was a shape-shifter therefore her control over her body was absolute, it was common knowledge that you couldn't take over a Martian's body without taking over their mind first. Of course this wasn't knowledge common on Earth and so Phantom didn't know that which made it quite easy to expel Phantom from her body.

"ARRGGGGGG" Phantom shouted as he was forced away from Megan to hit the ground below, a red circle surrounded Phantom as the computer called "Fail Phantom". Megan dropped her camouflage just as the zeta tube activated "Recognise, Kid Flash B-0-3" as said yellow speedster came strolling into the mission room, he took in the scene before him and laughed.

"Aw man, the first time I see the Ghost kid and it looks like he just had his ass handed to him by Miss Martian that is awesome" Kid said "Robin told me you were strong enough to give Superboy a run for his money, guess he was wrong."

Danny stood up and scowled just as Megan chimed in "when was the last time you beat me in a fight Wally you'll have to remind me because it was so long ago I can't remember"

"ooh burn" chuckled Robin.

"Your name is Wally" Danny asked with a smirk, Kid Flash frowned and was about to retort when Canary stepped in.

"OK lets limit the insults to the bad guys, so Phantom as you where both invisible for that fight do you mind explaining what happened and where you think you went wrong?" she said trying to distract the teens from starting a real fight.

"Well, it took me a few minutes but I found Miss Martian by looking for the slight distortions in the air, once I found her I tried to overshadow her but it went wrong somehow and I got thrown out."

"You can't take control of a Martians body unless you control their mind first, the two are tied too closely together because of the shape-shifting" explained Megan.

"OK so, overshadowing did you call it?" asked Canary, Danny nodded "doesn't work on Martians, but tell me Danny are you aware of a persons mind when you overshadow someone?"

"Erm not really, I mean I can pick up on some of their emotions if they're pretty strong at that time but I can't hear what they're thinking or anything" Danny explained.

"Ok, go again but this time no powers" said Canary.

* * *

Danny opened his eyes to meet blinding sunlight groaning to himself and wondering how he fell asleep outside he sat up and took a look around _'erm sand dunes?'_ he thought to himself confused. _'How the hell did I get to a desert'_ he thought starting to panic _'and what the hell am I wearing'_ looking down at the black and white hazmat suit. Standing up Danny spun on the spot trying to see anything in the distance that might help, the last thing he remembered was falling asleep in one of lancers boring English lessons. "So" he said starting to talk to himself "either this is one really elaborate practical joke or I'm missing something". Danny decided to pick a random spot on the horizon, something that looked like a small rock outcrop, and started walking along the way he was looking for anything on him that might give him a clue as to how he got here.

Noticing the hi-tech watch for the first time he started pushing buttons getting the touch screen to display the date as September 4th stopping in shock as he looked at the small device. _'OK possible explanations for missing six months would include time travel, memory loss or simply being unconscious for the whole time.'_ he was thinking as he continued walking. _'Which with my parents wacky inventions all are equally possible'_ remembering the time his dad had accidentally sucked the house into a parallel dimension, _'now there's a memory no amount of brain bleach is going to erase'_ he thought with a shudder.

Checking the other items on him he noticed the thick armoured belt he was wearing, the pockets on the belt contained a number of items such as rope, knives, throwing disks and explosives. Danny was very careful with that last item and was starting to get more and more freaked out by the minute, the thing he strangely was worrying about the most was the fact that none of the items had the characteristic green flaming F on them. This told him his parents had not put him here or given him any of the tech.

Danny was getting bored, he started reciting things to himself just little facts, rhymes and songs. He was doing this to try and keep himself distracted, he had noticed how weird his body felt and it was starting to freak him out so he didn't want to think about it too much. He felt lighter, it was almost as though gravity had gotten weaker, every step he took was pushing him into the air and further forwards than he expected. Things also looked brighter, colours where more vivid and his judgement of distances seemed to be a little off, he had thought that rock he was walking to was only about ten minutes away but it had been half an hour and he has yet to reach it. _'Don't think about it Fenton just stay focused'_ he said to himself _'and definitely don't think about what all those gross smells might be'._

Hearing a rumbling sound like distant thunder Danny's head jerked to the left to find the source seeing a large plume of smoke rise from beyond the dunes. _'Things exploding are usually best to avoid'_ he contemplated _'although explosions mean people and people mean water'_ he thought licking his already chapped lips. Feeling grateful for white cloak reflecting the sun and keeping off the worst of the heat he turned and walked towards the smoke pulling up the hood as he went. After an hour of walking patches of rock were starting to show among the sand dunes and there appeared to be some kind of large valley ahead of him, Danny quickened his pace looking forwards to getting into some shade so he could rest.

A whistling noise caught Danny's attention he turned just as something hit a boulder to one side causing the boulder to smash apart and knocking Danny off his feet. Sitting up Danny saw a black haired shirtless teen standing in the rubble. The boy screamed and lunged for Danny, the smaller teen quickly rolled to one side as the ground where he was just sitting was reduced to dust by a punch. There was another whistling noise and something hit the ground next to Danny exploding and throwing the two teens into the air.

Danny screamed as he was thrown over the valley, scrunching his eyes shut he started wishing and praying with all his might that he wouldn't splat on the ground. A sudden flash of light made Danny open his eyes again to find that he was now floating in mid-air "er, what just happened?" he asked in confusion. Noticing the new echo in his voice and the fact that he was also now glowing Danny gripped his air and screamed in frustration "JUST WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?". The sound of another impact brought Danny back to reality, he looked below him to see that destructo boy had landed on the ground in front of a chick in green who started firing arrows at him, the arrows exploded harmlessly against the teens chest.

Danny looked to see two tanks aligning their barrels on the duo "LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU!" Danny shouted, the girl with the bow quickly dropped to the ground as the tank shells hit the enraged teen. The boy climbed out of the hole, jumped towards the tanks and started tearing them apart.

"Thanks for the save" arrow girl called up to Danny floating above her

"No problem but do you mind explaining what's going on 'cause I have no clue" replied Danny.

A grey blur appeared and then resolved itself into Kid Flash wearing a black version of his usual superhero costume, Danny's eyes widened as he recognised the well known sidekick. He had just opened his mouth to speak when Kid Flash cut him off "talk later, escape from certain death first" he said somewhat breathlessly picking up arrow girl he called out "try to keep up" as he started running down the valley away from the exploding tanks. Danny extended his body out and put his arms in front of him like he had seen superman do on the TV as he accelerated after the pair his legs morphed into a tail like appendage.

Danny looked back in surprise at this them muttered to himself "this day just keeps getting weirder", the dust cloud in font of him was getting further away so he tried to push himself to move faster. The two then came to a halt and stumbled down the steep incline of a dune just as two drones shot over head, as the drones passed Danny he pulled out one of the exploding disks and threw it embedding into the drones wing. The white haired teen them let go of his flight and plummeted to the ground allowing the drone to explode harmlessly above him, hitting the ground harder than he anticipated he rolled into a crouch just behind green who was now aiming an arrow at the remaining drone.

 _'Don't worry I'm almost there'_ a strange voice echoed around Danny's head, green gasped and lost her aim her shot missing the drone completely as it circled around for another pass. "Did you guys just hear a girl talking inside your head" green asked uncertainly.

"Girls are always on my mind" Kid Flash responded "but they're not usually talking", Danny just rolled his eyes at that statement _'this one's just like Tucker'_ he thought in amusement before returning his attention to the matter at hand. Another figure appeared in the sky above them with one gesture of her hand she sent the remaining drone crashing into the side of a sand dune, flying through the smoke from the exploding drone she landed in-front of the three.

"Wow J'ohn the costume looks familiar" stated Kid "but I'm not sure the new bod screams man hunter"

"You know my uncle J'ohn?" asked the new comer "hello Megan, of course you do you're Kid Flash, Walley and you're Artemis and you are Phantom" she said pointing at each person in turn

"Wait, wait, wait Martian Manhunter's your uncle? Is that how you know my name?"

"Your name's really Walley?" asked Artemis, Kid flash groaned and Danny snickered.

"It's OK we're team mates, friends. I made you cookies!" Megan exclaimed

"Am I a part of this team to? Why did you call me Phantom? Am I a superhero? How did it happen?" asked Danny breathlessly as he pushed past Artemis and Walley to stand in front of Megan.

"Erm my memories kinda hazy but you joined not long ago and you're a ghost with powers I think"

"I'm a Ghost?" said Danny looking at his hands in shock "I died?" he asked starting to panic he said "how did I die? When? How could I forget something like that?" starting to hyperventilate.

"Phantom calm down" Megan said kindly placing a hand on his shoulder "like I said my memories are still unsure so you could just have gotten ghost powers somehow, I mean you're still breathing and what I know of earth ghosts, they're see through and can't be touched but I'm touching you now" she explained.

 _'It would explain some things if I had just gotten ghost powers'_ Danny thought to himself looking up to see the sympathetic looks he was getting off the other three he straitened up and squared his shoulders before saying "so memory loss then, I guess I wont know for sure until I get my memories back any ideas on how to do that?" he asked just as more explosions sounded in the distance the four of them looked over to see a rising plume of smoke.

"Come on I'll fill you in as we go, we need to find Robin and Superboy first they need our help" stated the Martian

"Of course" snarked Kid Flash "Robin and super what now?"

Night had fallen by the time the team found Robin, hearing gunshots nearby the four teens rushed forwards to find Robin fighting with soldiers. Danny and Miss Martian turned invisible as Kid Flash ran forwards. Danny flew behind three soldiers, he punched the one in the centre in the back of the head where his skull met his spine knocking him out instantly, then kicked the one on the right in the back of his knee causing him to drop to the ground, becoming visible Danny snatched the gun out of the third soldier's hands. Snapping the gun in two he used the butt to hit the guy in the face breaking his nose and knocking him out too, he then used the other half of the gun to hit the second soldier in the side of the head just as he was getting back to his feet.

Standing over the three soldiers Danny looked around for is next target to find that the others had already taken out the soldiers, he walked towards Robin as Miss Martian became visible and landed with Kid Flash and Artemis was also approaching. "KF! Man it's good to see a familiar face" exclaimed Robin grabbing Kid Flash's arm.

"Hey Rob, memory loss?"

"Six months! Lets hog tie these creeps and compare notes" responded Robin.

The five teens split up to drag all of the Biyalians into one pile which Robin then tied up, pulling the ropes perhaps a little tighter than was necessary _'serves them right for shooting at me'_ thought Robin. Whilst they worked Miss Martian did her best to fill Robin in on what was going on "so we're a team?" he asked looking around at the other four and drawing a complete blank.

"The five of us and Superboy" responded Ms Martian

"Then this must be his" said robin holding up a torn scrap of cloth with the distinctive red S symbol,

"Yes, did you see him!" asked Ms Martian.

"I think we did" said Artemis

"Feral boy?" said Kid Flash

"He almost punched a hole in my stomach" commented Danny

"Not much of a team mate" Kid Flash agreed "and besides aren't you a ghost? You can't die again can you?"

"I don't know" said Danny quietly as he looked at his hands

"He didn't know who we are" said Artemis ignoring the last part of the conversation "I don't know who we are" she stated.

"I remember Batman ordering radio silence, out team must work for him" said Robin

"How do you know we don't work for my mentor" asked Kid Flash touching his chest causing his suit to change from Black to yellow and red "wow this is so cool" he said touching his emblem again and causing it to change back, the others all tried the same thing but nothing changed, Danny couldn't even find an emblem to change he pulled down his hood displaying his white hair for the first time. The heat of the day was finally leaving and making him feel much more comfortable,

"We look ridiculous" Artemis said in annoyance "quit touching yourself" she shouted at KF

"Ha especially mister glowing white hair over there" chuckled Robin pointing a thumb in Danny's direction.

"WHAT?" Danny shouted trying to pull down a lock of hair in-front of his eyes "how did that happen I had black hair last time I checked".

Everyone chuckled at Danny's over the top reaction whilst Miss Martian looked worried "we need our memories back" said Artemis stating the obvious.

'T _o help Superboy'_ Miss Martian called out with her mind, her eyes glowed white as she reached out to the other four and drew them into her mind. The four of them looked around at the strange surroundings in shock, the walls curved inwards forming a ceiling of fractured images. Ms Martian then appeared in-front of them,

"I've brought you into mind to share what I've learned so far, but I need your help. Our fractured memories can form a whole if you open your minds to mine" she explained

"You want to poke though our private thoughts" said Artemis in alarm

"I have no wish to intrude but.."

"You need to hack our minds to find out what happened to us, go!" said Robin without hesitation

"My brain's all yours try not to let its brilliance overwhelm you" said Kid Flash smugly.

"Or underwhelm you" Robin commented "hey why isn't anyone just whelmed"

"I need to know what happened to me" said Danny determinedly. Kid flash walked forwards and took hold of Artemis's hand nodding at her as he did so,

"Last six months only, and only what you need" she said to Miss Martian, Megan nodded to them before raising her arms.

Coming out of their trance all five shouted "Aqualad!"

"Where is he what happened next?" asked Robin

"I don't know that the last thing I, we remember"

Kid flash and Artemis pulled their hands apart awkwardly "erh we landed 24 hours ago if Kaldurs been wandering the desert this long, well that's not good for a guy with gills" KF stated.

"Well now that I know to look for him" said Robin activating his wrist computer "he's close but he's not moving"

"Lets go quickly" said Walley as he started running in the direction indicated by robins computer.

"I've got Robin you get Artemis" said Danny flying forwards to grab Robin under the arms and lifting him into the air following Kid Flash. Robin waited until the others where out of earshot before asking.

"What are you so happy about? you haven't stopped grinning since we got our memories back"

"Oh, sorry it's just that I was really panicking when I thought I was dead back there but finding out I'm only half ghost" said Danny, his face scrunched up as he struggled to find the right words "I guess, I don't know, I'm just relieved and happy."

Robin shook his head and said "only you could be happy about being half dead little bro", robin still believed that Danny was a Meta human but he knew that now was not the time to get into that argument. The pair looked forwards to see that Walley had stopped moving near a cluster of rocks

"Lets get down there quick" said Danny, they touched down in front of KF and rushed to Kaldurs side Miss Martian and Artemis landed shortly after.

"He's severely dehydrated" said Kid Flash, he was knelt down at Kaldurs side checking the Atlanteans heart rate as he muttered in his peoples language "Phantom do you think you could help cool him down?" he asked.

"I'll try" said Danny removing a glove and placing his hand on Kaldurs forehead, his cold aura seemed to bring instant relief to the stricken Atlantean as he relaxed into the touch.

"I can't restore his memories in this state" said Megan

"He needs to be rehydrated, call the bioship" said Robin.

"It's out of range, but you could get him there fast" she said looking at Kid Flash

"He's too heavy and I'm too low on fuel, right now I couldn't even carry her" KF said pointing at Artemis

"Why not just levitate him back" asked Artemis.

"I can't I need to find Superboy, six months ago he didn't even exist he has no memories just animal impulse I'm the only one who can help him" she responded

"But Superboy's indestructible just ask those tanks" KF gasped in exhaustion "it's Aqualad who needs you're help right now."

Megan suddenly screamed and grasped her head "NO! Superboy's in pain, I can't wait" she said urgently as she took off.

"We still don't know what erased our memories, it could happen again" Robin called after her "Phantom" he said turning to the ghost "we've got Aqualad you go follow Ms M, make sure she's safe"

"Ok" said Danny as he took of after Megan.

Danny followed the distant speck in the sky that was Misiss Martian until it disappeared, assuming that she had gone into camo mode he switched to invisibility thinking that he was probably close to where Superboy was being kept. Danny spotted a large canvas tent in the distance, his sensitive hearing picked up the sound of screaming. Flying closer Danny hovered invisibly over the tent pondering his next move as he looked around to find Megan, seeing a tent flap part Danny thought to himself _'OK so if she's going in I guess I'll take out the sentries so they don't cause problems'._ Dropping invisibly behind the nearest soldier, coving the man's mouth with his hand then punched him in the head knocking him out, extending his invisibility over his victim he dragged him away from the tent and hid the body out of sight.

Danny repeated this with the next four soldiers before things started to go wrong all at once. His watch suddenly let out a very loud obnoxious sounding beep as a message appeared on the screen informing him his blood sugar level was very low and he should eat something. This beep of course alerted the two sentries in front of him where he was, they turned around and started firing aimlessly Danny turned intangible allowing the bullets to pass harmlessly though him. Objects then started to levitate off the ground including the two soldiers, Danny turned visible again and flew forwards to tackle the two grunts throwing a disk at one of them knocking his gun out of his hands he pushed the other to the ground. Knocking out both guards with a few well placed punches he scrambled to his feet and phased into the tent to discover utter chaos. At the centre of the chaos Megan was floating with her hands to her head, across from her was a bizarre looking man _'ew I can see his brain, gross'_ Danny thought.

Superboy then landed next to Danny, the feral look was gone from his eyes "back with us?" asked Danny.

"Yea and now I'm mad lets kick some butt" he said with a growl

"I like how you think" remarked Danny with a smirk, more guards forced their way into the tent. The object in the centre of the tent burst open and a sphere rolled out smashing into the assembled soldiers and knocking them down, the sphere turned to Superboy and started beeping at him.

"Er thanks?" said Superboy uncertainly.

More guards forced their way in and started firing at the sphere both Danny and Superboy leapt forwards to tackle the soldiers. The fight between Megan and the other psychic intensified creating a whirlwind that lifted everything off the ground and threw them into the air, Danny was too light and was pulled into the air easily he turned himself intangible to avoid the flying projectiles and tried to fly towards the centre of the fight as Superboy jumped next to Megan and grabbed her hand.

Danny was starting to feel a little dizzy and nauseous at being spun around so fast, the psychic suddenly grabbed his head and screamed, _'guess that means we won'_ Danny thought as the whirlwind broke through the tent and threw everything into the air only to come crashing back down again. Danny floated back down to the ground in-front of Megan and Superboy who looked like they where about to have an intimate moment. Danny cleared his throat causing the two to look up just as the sphere rolled up to the trio, the sphere beeped at Superboy as he asked "can I keep it?"

Vladimir Masters considered himself to be a very intelligent man, he had built several companies that have now gone international making him billions. He was known in the business world as being ruthless and unstoppable, he never invested in anything that failed to produce results and was known to bankrupt entire companies just to eliminate some slight chance of future competition with them. He was classed in the higher leagues of the worlds wealthy elite, not quite at the level of Lex Luthor or Bruce Wayne but most believed it was only a matter of time before he joined them at the top.

A couple of years ago Vlad had noticed a strange trend in the worlds markets, it seemed several alliances had been made between companies owned by some wealthy players. This coincided with rumours circulating in the underworld about a new power that was rising but despite all of his investigations no further leads where forthcoming. If there was a new power rising he wanted in on it but no one seemed to know anything more about it, either that or they were being tight lipped and nothing, not bribes or threats could influence the scum he was questioning. Vlad hated most criminals they where mostly a very dim, impatient and greedy lot but due to several of his off the books companies where involved in projects that where not strictly legal he unfortunately needed their services.

Vlad decided to shore up his investments and make some strategic alliances of his own as well as allowing a rumour of his own to spread through the underworld simply that he was interested in this rising power. He then sat back and waited after all Vlads game was chess and that involved carefully placing your pieces and the being patient enough to allow your opponent to fall into your trap. How glad Vlad was now that he had waited as the perfect opportunity had quite literally fallen into his lap when he got a rather unusual invite.

Currently in his human form and dressed in one of the most expensive tailored suits that money could buy Vlad was stood in a darkened chamber facing seven screens that displayed the white silhouettes of the very people he had been looking for, Vlad smirked just from this first meeting he had already worked out the identities of three of the people he was facing the others shouldn't take much effort to figure out just from the associations and the shape of some of the silhouettes were rather distinctive.

"Vladimir Masters, thank you for coming on such short notice" a deep male voice called out from the screen on his far right

"It is an honour to be invited into the company of such an illustrious group" replied Vlad hinting at his knowledge of there true identities.

"We would like you to undertake a task for us" called and accented female voice from the centre screen

"Of course I didn't think you would invite me here for idle chit chat" snarked Vlad

"Be careful how you speak" said another voice with a heavy French accent which allowed Vlad to work out another persons identity.

"My apologies" said Vlad inclining his head at he screen that had just spoken "but I have a rather busy schedule."

"Indeed" called another screen "then we will get to the point" a holographic display appeared infront of Vlad showing a white haired teen tackling a Bialian soldier. The fact that the soldier was Bialian allowed Vlad to deduce the identity of the woman who had spoke earlier, noticing that the display was a photo gallery he flipped though several of the photos and video footage presumably from helmet cams on the soldier. It showed the boy flying and phasing through objects as well as his white glow, understanding why this group had called for him and that they had somehow figured out that he was Plasmius.

"So what would you like me to do about your little problem ghost boy?" Vlad asked

"It would seem that he has joined with a team of young superheroes and sidekicks, we would like you to either persuade him to our side or remove him from the equation" stated the screen to his right.

"'Iz powers are quite fascinating no? It would be good to have a sample for study" the French voice rung out again.

"Ooh good idea, cut him open and see what colour his insides are" a childish voice called out in glee. Vlad winced at that he would have thought that these people would have more class than that, but it did give him an idea.

"This ghost calls himself Phantom, I have tried a couple of, admittedly half-hearted, capture attempts on him already, for this I will need more personnel" Vlad said, he of course believed he could capture the brat on his own but he wanted to see just how much he could get out of this deal.

"The Guys In White are looking for new funding I believe, perhaps you could enlist their help Mr Masters" a new voice said, Vlad inwardly smirked _'so Lex wouldn't fall for that one I see_ ' he thought to himself.

"Very well, now for my compensation" he asked

"Ask and if it is within our power you shall have it" the first voice said, just what Vlad had been wanting him to say.

"I want a seat on this council, promise me that and I promise Phantom will be brought into the light willingly or not"

After getting back to Wayne manor Danny went to grab his things, he had spent too long in the desert and needed to get back for school that was starting in about two hours time. No time to sleep he grabbed his duffel bag out of his room where Alfred had put it, quickly showered and put on some fresh cloths before running back down to the cave and the zeta beam tube where he found Dick waiting for him with his own duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. "Where are you going?" Danny asked.

"With you" said Dick rolling his eyes at his clueless brother,

"What? Why?"

"Don't worry I cleared it with your parents last week they said I could have the spare room, Gotham Academy are sending all of my work via e-mail so I can spend a week with my little brother and his family. I guess they're sorta my family too aren't they?" Dick said with an excited grin on his face he grabbed Danny by the arm and dragged him to the zeta tube calling out "Amity Park" to the computer as he went.

The zeta beam activated engulfing the pair in golden light as they emerged from an old public toilets that had a large 'out of order' sign on the door. "Look Dick, I'd walk you to the house but I have to be in School in like 20 minutes and it's in the opposite direction" Danny explained.

"Oh don't worry I know where I'm going and your parents are expecting me so it should be no problem"

"Do you think you can come up with a credible excuse as to why I'm so late getting back" Danny asked.

"Yep, there was an accident at the Gotham airfield and our plane was delayed by several hours" said Dick with a smug grin

"Ok well I guess I'll see you later today" Danny said waving goodbye and walking towards school.

"See you later little Bro" Dick called out to his as he walked off, Danny smirked to himself _'it's going to be an interesting week'_ he thought.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Danny had spent the first period of the day sleeping, which meant he got another detention from Mr Lancer, he had tried to explain that he had been up all night waiting for his plane to take off but no one seemed interested in his excuse. Danny was trying very hard not to take it personally, Tucker took it upon himself to sit next to Danny in all his classes and poke him painfully in the side every-time he started to drift off.

"Dude you can't afford to get any more detentions, you promised we would go to the swapmeet tomorrow after school" Tucker said giving Danny another painful jab in the side. Danny just scowled at Tucker as he straitened in his chair trying to get into an uncomfortable position so he would stay awake. Luckily the bell rang signifying the end of the school day,

"Finally" said Danny jumping out of his chair "come on Tuck lets find Sam and go over to my house you've got to meet Dick."

"Sure dude, but do you know where Sam is?" Tucker asked

"Erm, good point" Danny said stopping to scratch his head as he looked up and down the corridor that was swarming with students.

"Hey Fenturd" was heard through the bustle as a blond head was trying to push its way through the crowds of teens struggling to escape the confines of the educational institution.

"Lets look for her this way" said Danny heading in the opposite direction, despite his new fame the football team still enjoyed causing problems for him especially when they found out that he had no access to his brother's wealth. Danny for his part was kind of relieved he quickly got tired of all the suck-ups. Tucker just smirked and followed his best friend up the corridor towards the other entrance to the school as he looked around for Sam, and as usual she found them first. Walking out of a side corridor and matching their pace Sam started talking as-though she had been there all along.

"So we're finally going to meet the famous brother?" she commented

"Yea you guys are going to love him, he's awesome" Danny said with a smile

"Great we can also ask him what he's had you doing during those weekends at Wayne Manor" Sam said with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" asked Danny confused

"Dude I'm a computer genius, I checked your flight status, there were no delays at Gotham Airport yesterday. In fact there was no record that you or Dick even got on a plane in Gotham" Tucker said typing away on his tablet.

"Erm?" said Danny intelligently

"How about the fact that you're covered in bruises when there were no ghost fights yesterday either and we both know how fast you heal" Sam continued.

"How do you know I'm covered in bruises?" he asked

"Because you have been overly careful all day and you keep wincing when bending over," Sam said stopping in a quiet corner with all of the students gone she quickly looked around before saying to Danny "lift your shirt Danny" crossing her arms and giving him a very strict look. Danny sighed to himself before lifting his shirt up slightly showing a series of bruises trailing up his body from his left hip to the centre of his chest, both Sam and Tucker gasped.

"Dude what happened?" Tucker asked, Danny bit his lip knowing it was not his place to tell them what he had been doing, this particular bruise was from when he almost got hit by a tank shell and his side got blasted with rubble. Sam started tapping her foot a sign both Danny and Tucker knew was an upcoming rant if she didn't get answers soon.

"I can't tell you" said Danny in a quiet voice lowering his shirt

"Did _he_ do this to you?" Sam said in a low dangerous voice, almost a growl.

"What? No Dick would never..."

"Then tell us what's been going on dude" asked Tucker interrupted

"Its not my secret to tell" Danny tried to explain. Sam eyed Danny critically as he looked desperately from Sam to Tucker and back again.

"Fine" she said "but promise us that as soon as you can tell us that you will tell us" prodding Danny in the chest.

"OK I promise" Danny said drawing a cross on his chest "cross my heart" he said with a smile,

"Good enough for me" said Sam turning and walking away,

"Seriously?" asked Tucker looking incredulously at Sam's back.

"Yep, now come on I want to meet Danny's older Brother" she called over her shoulder as she walked off. The two boys looked at each other both equally confused as to what just happened _'I can't believe it was that easy'_ Danny thought to himself.

"Girls, I'll never understand them" said Tucker looking at his tablet he said "apart from you my dear you'll always be an open book to me"

"Tucker has anyone ever told you that you're a little too attached to technology, it's kinda creepy" Danny commented as the pair set off after Sam.

* * *

Danny arrived back at home and let himself and his friends into the distinctive building walking into the living room he called out "I'm home", suddenly stopping dead in his tracks to survey the scene in-front of him. The coffee table had been buried under piles of photo albums as his parents sat on the couch with Dick in the middle pointing to pictures in a book that Dick had open in his lap. Dick looked up at Danny and the biggest Cheshire Cat grin split his face as a pit of dread opened up in Danny's stomach.

"Ooh showing the new brother baby pictures" said Sam amusement clear in her tone "that's harsh even by your parents standards of embarrassment."

"Hi Danny" Dick drawled

"Welcome home sweetie" said Danny's Mom, oblivious to the tension in the room. Danny's eyes never left Dicks as he thought of a way to get revenge for this as he was sure that it was probably all Dicks fault in the first place. This was confirmed a couple of minutes later when his father said,

"Your brother wanted to know everything about you Danny so we thought we would break out the old family albums"

"Aw look at this one, isn't he cute" said Tucker who had picked up one of the albums and was looking at a picture of 2 year old Danny at the play ground.

"TUCKER!" Danny shouted snatching the book out of his best friends hands and slamming it shut, Jazz chose that moment to walk in through the door and repeated Dannys earlier look of shock before her expression morphed into one of anger.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she screamed at her parents as she marched forwards and grabbed an armful of photo albums she then walked over to the closet and threw the books in, repeating the procedure as she berated her parents "DO YOU KNOW HOW EMBARASING THIS IS?". Maddie had the good grace to look sheepish however Jack looked confused and replied

"Come on Jazz we were just showing Dick some family photos as he's part of the family now" throwing an arm over the boys shoulders "we were just making him feel welcome."

"Also dear, we got an invite from Bruce Wayne earlier to go to his house next week for a couple of days I'm sure Mr Wayne has many embarrassing stories about Dick he will no doubt tell us" added Maddie winking at Danny.

Danny looked at Dick and grew a large evil smile as Dick's grin dropped and his face lost all colour. "What? That can't be right, I'll be right back" said Dick pulling his phone out of his pocket and walking into the kitchen, both Tucker and Sam turned to look at Danny as he tilted his head to one side. Getting the message both waited with a smile as Danny used his enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on the conversation going on between Dick and Bruce.

"... yes that's right I invited the Fentons around for a couple of days" Bruce's voice called out with the typical distortion of someone speaking over the phone,

"But why?" Dick asked

"Because Danny has been spending a lot of time over here recently and the Fentons deserve to know where there their son is over the weekends"

"but we barely spent anytime at the mansion this weekend"

"yes but they don't know that, now what have I told you about ringing this number?"

"World ending emergencies only?"

"Precisely now I'm in the middle of a meeting and have to go" said Bruce hanging up the phone.

Danny grinned at his friends and nodded his head, both of them smiled back as Dick walked out of the kitchen. Dick saw Danny grinning and narrowed his eyes at his brother which just caused Tucker and Sam to try and stifle their laughter. "We're going to my room, are you coming Dick?" Danny asked

"Sure" Dick responded

"Ok sweetie I'll call you down when dinner is ready"said Maddie just as Jazz managed to stuff the last of the photo albums in the closet, producing a key from thin air she locked the door and turned to glare at Dick. Walking up to him she poked him in the chest and said in a quiet and menacing voice

"Say a word about anything you saw in those albums and I'll destroy you even if you are my brother". She then stalked off to her own room, despite the threat Dick couldn't help but smile _'she called me her brother'_ he thought to himself he then slowly turned on the spot taking in the people in the room. Jack and Maddie were sat on the couch Jack had one arm over Maddie's shoulders, she leant against his side as they looked at the one remaining photo album with smiles on their faces. Danny was walking up the stairs with his friends behind him chatting away happily as Jazz was elbowing her way past them on the way to her room with a look of annoyance on her face but she couldn't help her mouth turning upwards at the corners in amusement of her brothers antics as he tried to block the stairs. _'This is my family'_ Dick thought to himself, the revelation make a trill of joy run through him as tears started to prick at the back of his eyes.

Suddenly noticing that Dick was no longer with them as they reached the top of the stairs Danny, Tucker and Sam stopped and looked back to see Dick standing in the centre of the living room. Sensing a change in the atmosphere Jazz also stopped and looked down on the boy as Jack and Maddie looked up from the album with concerned looks on their faces, "hey Dick are you still with us?" called Danny leaning on the banister. Dick looked around at everyone before replying

"Yea, I'm with you"

"Welcome to the family Little Brother" Jazz called over her shoulder as she disappeared from sight.

* * *

Dick had spent a rather boring and uneventful day in the Fenton house, Danny and Jazz where both at school, Maddie and Jack were both in the basement lab doing who knows what. They had forbidden Dick from going down there until they had the chance to go over all of their safety protocols with him, even though Dick knew that Danny and his friends went down there all the time without any kind of safety gear on. There were plenty of the Fenton's inventions just lying around the house anyway that he could look at, most of them seemed to be some form of weaponry. Dick was actually pretty impressed with most of the tech in the house, he had researched Danny's parents before coming of course and discovered they both had advanced degrees in multiple subjects including Physics, Mathematics and engineering. Despite the couples multiple character quirks they were undoubtedly geniuses, in fact they could have gotten highly paid research posts at pretty much any institution in the world, that is if their preferred field of study wasn't ghosts.

Dick decided it was time to get out of the house and go exploring, he was meeting Danny and Tucker later to go to the swapmeet, but until then Dick needed something to occupy his time. Grabbing his sunglasses and leather jacket, with the utility belt secretly stashed in the lining, he headed out. Amity Park was pretty standard for a big town that was starting to turn into a small city, it's residents had that look about them which said _'we have a real community here and its getting bigger and making us rich in the process'_ Dick considered it a great change from the stagnant air of Gotham, this was a place where that level of corruption has not set in yet. Looking around Dick considered the new skyscrapers and the land being developed for more housing, walking through the centre of the town he saw even the library and small museum where getting an over haul. _'looks like this place is just entering its golden age'_ Dick contemplated _'even the ghost attacks don't seem to be slowing things down'_ the thought as he looked a a multi story apartment building which had obvious scorch marks and blasted walls to show the recent fights between ghosts. _'It looks like Danny is only concentrating on ghosts though and not tackling other problems, I mean I know the crime rate in this town is pretty low but we have no reports of Danny stopping robbers and other petty crooks. The crime rate is only going to increase as the city gets bigger as well, maybe we can add this into Danny's training this weekend'._

Looking at the time on the town hall's clock tower Dick decided it was time to meet Danny and Tucker at the school and set off in that direction as it was only a 10 minute walk. Reaching the school he noticed there was still about 15 minutes of class left and so he sat down on the grass opposite the school. Crossing his legs he started to pick at the blades of grass in front of him. Dick was soo bored only just staring to realise how much me missed his daily training sessions or his xbox or beating up some bad guys, wow he really needed to got some more hobbies.

The school bell rang and an avalanche of teens burst from the main doors as though all the hounds of hell were on their heels, Dick stood up and tried to search the crowd for his brother. It wasn't until the flow of students slowed to a trickle that Dick finally spotted the trio strolling out of the doors. Dick bounced over to the three waving his arm in the air to get their attention,

"Hey dude" called Tucker who noticed Dick first, the other two then turned and waved in greeting

"Hi Dick how was your day?" asked Sam

"Ok, kinda boring being on my own" Dick replied.

"I feel for you dude, maybe Danny can show you his computer tonight so you can play doomed or something and not be so bored" Tucker suggested

"That's a great idea" said Danny "I bet you'll be really good at it too"

"Sure sounds good"

"Hey guys I'm not feeling too good so I'm going to head home" sniffed Sam.

"Ok well we'll see you tomorrow then" said Danny as Sam turned to leave

"See you, have fun" Sam called over her shoulder as she walked away.

"So where are we going?" asked Dick

"The swapmeet is just down the road, it's been set up on the school field" said Tucker leading the way he started to walk towards the venue.

"What actually is this swapmeet anyway?" Dick inquired

"Oh they run it every year, it's basically a bunch of small local businesses trying to make a bit of extra cash" Tucker explained.

"Yea but there's usually food stalls and rides and places that sell games and such. It's a great place to pick up a bargain" Danny continued.

"Ha not that you have to worry about money though right" Tucker joked nudging Dick's arm

"Actually I get an allowance, it's not that much really, I try not to spend it" Dick smiled.

"Aw man, are you telling me that my best friends brother, ward of the billionaire Bruce Wayne, is just as poor as the rest of us?"

"I'm afraid so" Dick laughed.

The trio continued chatting as they walked onto the field and started exploring the various stalls set up. They got burgers from a fast food van and continued to look around, some stalls were interesting like the gypsy fortune teller who had a pot she claimed contained a djinn, Tucker and Danny looked unimpressed and quickly walked away. Dick however had been around enough magical items to recognise the genuine article, it was the runes around the base that clued him in, he didn't know what they meant but he made a mental note to steal it later and hand it over to one of the magic users in the league.

Running to catch up with with the others he spotted them bartering with one stall holder over a set of skateboard wheels. Walking towards the pair he suddenly noticed Danny tense up as a blue wisp of condensation escaped his mouth, knowing what that meant from his conversations with Danny, Dick slowed his pace and started to look around for any signs of a ghost.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Dick dodged to the side and did a flip over a table to avoid being caught up in the torrent of cotton candy. Coming to stand at Tucker's side just as Phantom flew over head towards the large green ghost who seemed to be wearing a belly dancing costume.

"Dude how did you do that?" asked Tucker dumbfounded, Dick blinked, confused for a second before he realised Tucker was talking about the flip, he had over done it a little.

"Oh, I'm a gymnast" Dick said with a shrug, turning to focus on the two ghosts above them just as Phantom shouted

"HEY, GET AWAY" Phantom stuck out his right hand towards the other ghost and a green blast shot out from his palm punching the larger ghost in the chest and sending her flying out of sight. "What the heck? Is this some new ghost power?" Phantom said as he drifted back down to ground level

"That was slamin," Tucker exclaimed "it that a new ghost power?"

"I guess" Phantom replied

"Man that's the cool thing about your powers, there's no down side. Give me five" Tucker said holding up his hand, Phantom held up his to high five his best friend.

"No wait.." said Dick noticing that Phantom's hand was still glowing but he was too late as a blast hit Tucker throwing him backwards and scorching a line down the side of his arm, _'there is always a down side'_ thought Dick mournfully.

"I'm OK" Tucker called from where he was half buried in cotton candy,

"I'll check on him" sighed Dick "you need to go after that ghost" he told Phantom.

"Oh right, almost forgot" said Danny as he flew off in the direction that the ghost had been blasted. Dick walked over to Tucker and started to dig him out looking around as he did to note if any damage had been done. Apart from everyone now looking very pink and sticky there where no major injuries and most of the stalls had been spared the wave of confectionery. The woman at the cotton candy stall had simply unplugged the machine to stop its rampage and was now looking bemusedly in the metal mixing bowl as though looking for the problem. It would seem that she didn't even see the large glowing green ghost that was the cause of all the raucous.

Finally pulling Tucker out of the sticky mess he pulled the younger boy away from the scene to take a look at his arm. Tucker for his part was looking more concerned about his red beret than his arm, glaring at a particularly stubborn piece of pink fluff stuck to the hat as though it had personally offended him. Dick rolled his eyes as he examined the burn, the skin was pink and swollen running down the side of his hand and arm from the base of his little finger to his elbow. Deciding that the beam had only grazed the skin and not come into full contact so the burn was not serious, either that or the beam was very low powered which considering that Phantom had not meant to do it was probably highly likely.

"We need to get this under some cold water so it doesn't blister" Dick said

"OK dude" said Tucker putting his beret back on "we should go back to the school, it won't be closed yet and we can use the sinks in the toilets" as Tucker finished talking Phantom appeared behind them, sitting on the ground looking tired "dude how long have you been sat there?" Tucker asked.

"Just got back now" Phantom gasped, a ring of light appeared around his waist separating and changing him back into Danny.

"Are you OK?" Dick asked "you're looking a little out of breath there"

"Yea, chased her for a bit then she disappeared and I couldn't find her anywhere, I keep forgetting that I don't need to breathe as a ghost" Danny explained, standing up he looked at Tuckers arm and winced "Oh sorry dude, I so didn't mean to do that."

"Don't sweat it" Tucker shrugged

"Lets get to the school so we can sort Tuckers arm, we can talk more there" said Dick.

The trio made their way back to the school and to the toilets, "how long do I have to keep my arm under here?" Tucker asked wincing as he pushed his arm under the cold running water.

"About 5 minutes at least if you don't want blisters" Dick explained before turning to Danny "so a new power, what triggered it?"

"She tried to touch me"

"That's all it took?" asked Dick incredulously

"Yep."

"Well you're going to have to learn how to control it, maybe we could set up some targets in your parents lab tonight" Dick suggested

"Er dude, Danny has mascot duties tonight for the football team" Tucker explained "can I take my arm out now it's starting to hurt."

"No" said Danny and Dick at the same time, Danny moved forwards and grabbed Tucker's arm being careful not to touch the burn he moved the arm back into the stream of water from the tap and held it there as Tucker struggled to pull away.

"Not cool dude" Tucker exclaimed,

"It's for your own good Tucker" Danny smirked "I don't want to hear your whining for the next few days about itchy blisters."

"How are you so strong all of a sudden? Your using your powers aren't you" Tucker accused

"Ghost strength, gotta love it."

"Not fair using your powers on me twice in one day"Tucker said as Dick raised an eyebrow, lips curling up slightly at the corners at the scene of the two friends wrestling over the sink.

"Guilt tripping won't work on me buddy" said Danny as Tucker started chuckling and shoving Danny's side, the pair quickly dissolved into hysterics with each trying to shove the other further into the sink. Deciding it was time to break it up Dick stepped in and pulled them both back from the sink the two boys were not expecting it and stumbled back knocking into Dick and causing all three the tumble to the floor. The three where temporarily stunned as they looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

* * *

Agent M scowled at the overly large and obnoxious painting hanging above the receptionist's desk, to be summoned like some common lackey was embarrassing enough but to have to use a back entrance just because the billionaire didn't want to be seen with you. Not to mention having to wait out here as countless people came and went from the billionaire's office was just plain mortifying. He was the director of one of the largest paranormal agencies on the planet and didn't have the time to waste on some pompous prat like Masters, although he did need his money. Just as he decided to get up and leave the receptionist spoke "Mr Masters will see you now agent M."

"Thank you" M replied stiffly standing and adjusting his rumpled white suit he walked through the doors into a very large office, noticing he had in-fact come in through a side door and the main doors where to his left. To his right was a huge monstrosity of a desk made of darkened wood with carved dragons on each corner the heads arcing up to growl at the facing wall, the feet of the desk where the large scaled claws of the dragons and the wings curved upwards to support the surface of the desk. M thought that the desk suited the man behind it perfectly, it was probably one of a kind made to order or an antique no one else would want, it showed the ego of the man, one who worked on the backs of dragons.

"Agent M" Masters called "Please have a seat" he said gesturing to the chair facing him, M walked over and sat down without saying a word. "I have invited you here today to discuss the possibility of funding..."

"You keep some very interesting company Mr Masters" said M cutting the man off mid speech "I believe I recognise a couple of the faces who have been in and out of your office today from Government and Justice league watch lists. Tell me when did you get so close with the league of shadows?" he asked.

Recognising a poor attempt at blackmail Vlad smirked "I'm a very rich man Agent M, and money can buy many things such as police, judges, warrants" he paused for a second glancing at the wall to his right before focusing back on the man in front of him "even assassins". M looked towards where Vlad had glanced only seeing bookshelves at first before he noticed a glint of light between two books that had not been stacked properly, a glint that looked to M like the scope of a rifle catching the light.

M gulped and tried not to show his nerves but it was not missed by Vlad who's smirk just got larger. "come now agent lets dispense with the foolish acts of bravado I invited you here to suggest an alliance not to declare war"

"What did you have in mind" M asked still a little distracted by the gun being pointed at him.

"I will provide funding for the GIW for the next five years, I will even throw in the patents I own for ghost hunting technology developed by the Fentons."

"And what do you want for this funding Mr Masters?" M asked genuinely curious why the man would offer everything that the GIW needed without a fight.

"Control of the GIW for a start, I won't interfere with the day to day so to speak but I want overall control. First of all you will cut all remaining ties with any world government, secondly my name and that of my company and associates will never appear on any GIW paper work or recordings, and finally you will help me catch this ghost." Vlad stated spinning the screen of his computer around to show a young ghost in a black and white jump suit. "I believe you are familiar with him?"

"Yes this ghost has shown up in Amity park over the past few weeks, he has been fighting other ghosts, no one is sure why some of our scientists are suggesting it may be a territorial thing" M frowned "why this ghost though he's strong yes but nothing really special, also couldn't the Fentons catch him for you?"

"No the Fentons are great inventors but unreliable and incompetent when it comes to catching ghosts, I need your men's training and expertise. Once he is captured your scientists will do nothing unless I authorise it, with my funding you can catch other ghosts to cut open and experiment on to your hearts content but I have a particular purpose in mind for this one."

"Why?" M asked confused

"That is not your concern, now do we have a deal?"

"Very well" M agreed knowing he was going to regret this.

* * *

Danny collapsed into bed utterly exhausted from the day's efforts. After making sure Tucker was OK they took Dick on a tour of the town before meeting up with Sam, who was starting to look very ill, and went to the football game. Danny was then forced to flounce around in a heavy raven costume for almost an hour as well as being trampled by the football team when Desiree showed up again and Danny had to pull a ghost out of Dash.

Danny then discovered another of his parents inventions that had the potential to do him harm when sending the Dash ghost back to the Ghost Zone. The ghost catcher with its ability to split him into his two halves was very disturbing to Danny, it felt as though a vital part of himself was suddenly missing, but he managed to merge back into one with no problems.

Shortly after everyone else had gone to bed Dick had appeared at his bedroom door and insisted that the two of them go and patrol the city to try and find the wishing ghost. Dick took to the rooftops as Robin whilst Phantom flew above him. The two had been patrolling for an hour when they came across a man being mugged in a back street. Robin signalled to Phantom who turned invisible and swooped down into the alley grabbing the criminals gun and phasing it out of his grip as Robin dropped down from above landing on the man's shoulders. The muggers victim only saw a brief shadow envelop the criminal along with a couple of muffled thuds, once the shadow lifted the man was knocked out and tied up on the ground.

Phantom had grabbed Robin under his arms, once the criminal was tied up, and turned them both invisible, flying back up to drop Robin on a roof top to continue with their patrol. They didn't find the ghost but Robin seemed happy with the way they worked together and communicated silently. Giving up on their search they returned to the house at about 3am allowing Danny to get a much needed four hours sleep before having to get up for school. Being part ghost Danny didn't need as much sleep as he used to so four hours was enough to leave him feeling refreshed even if he would have liked a few more hours in bed. He was therefore stunned when he walked into the kitchen to get breakfast in the morning to find Dick was already awake and looking as though he had had a full nights sleep.

"Do you sleep at all!" asked Danny, Dick only grinned around his mouth full of cereal as Danny walked over to fill a bowl. "What are you going to do today whilst I'm at school?", swallowing his cereal Dick looked at Danny and picked something up off the table.

"I'm going to try and track down that ghost, I borrowed this from your parents lab" he said turning on the device that Danny recognised as the Spectre Detector. Dick switched on the device which gave an obnoxious beep before announcing "A ghost is near, walk forwards" as Dick pointed the device in Danny's direction a blip showed up on the small radar screen. "at least I know it works now" Dick said.

"Put it away, if my parents walk in ..." Danny started

"Don't worry they're still asleep" Dick said rolling his eyes at Danny's sudden nervousness, slipping the detector into his pocket he continued "you really have to think about telling your parents, the longer you wait the harder it'll be on everyone". Danny scrunched up his face and tried to find a change of topic

"Me and Tuck are going to the movies after school do you wanna come?" Danny asked "Sam was supposed to be coming too but she texted me this morning saying she was too sick for school and probably won't be able to come"

"Sure" Dick sighed

* * *

Dick decided to go out in his civvies, he went to the scene of the first ghost attack thinking it was a good a place as any to start. Walking around the swapmeet whilst surreptitiously checking the spectre detector every few minutes, he soon came upon the gypsy's stall and asked the woman behind it about the wishing ghost. The woman, Babazita, told him all out the legends concerning the ghost and how she died of a broken heart and spent her afterlife roaming the Earth and granting wishes. The ghost had an unfortunate run-in with a magician who grew tired of the ghosts antics and sealed her away within the bottle.

Dick walked away from the conversation considering several facts he had learned. First, magic could affect ghosts and even contain them, Dick couldn't see himself leaning magic anytime soon but still it could useful information for the league. Second, it seemed that ghosts had quite a wide range of abilities, it was possible that Desiree could use magic herself and was quite powerful if she was granting wishes but it sounded like her use of magic was subject to rules, rules that could be used against her.

Third, and most important of all, where ghosts actually real? Dick had assumed they where just beings from another dimension or a group of strange meta-humans with similar abilities. However the way Babazita had described Desiree it was although she had been human at one point and had died to become a ghost, she was also described as being several hundred years old. Dick shuddered as he thought about being trapped in a bottle for that long, no wonder she was angry. Dick's confusion for the whole thing only increased as he considered Danny's half-ghost status.

Dick decided it was best to concentrate on the problem at hand and kept walking around the small city trying to pick anything up on the scanner and getting nowhere, he visited several of the areas mentioned in Danny's reports as being popular for ghosts. After having no luck and being very footsore from a day of constant walking Dick turned off the scanner and made his way back to the high school to meet up with Danny and Tucker. Sitting down to watch a movie sounded very good at the moment.

* * *

The next few days went disastrously, having to pull a ghost out of Paulina at the movies with a little help from Robin, who had appeared with some ghost fighting equipment and a Thermos for him to use, was just the start. Desiree it seemed was just getting warmed up, flying cars, huge piles of money raining from the sky and through it all Tucker was their biggest problem. Desiree had given the technogeek ghost powers, powers that were now corrupting him.

"Look" said robin "Tucker's your friend you have more chance of reaching him than I do, if we split up I can go after Desiree while you go and help Tuck"

"Ok sounds like a plan, er do you actually have a plan for capturing the ghost?" Danny asked

"I've got plenty of Fenton tech I'm sure I can take down a ghost, I just have to find her"

"Why don't you try a wishing well, I mean she is a wishing ghost after-all" Danny explained. Dick face palmed and then said,

"Oh duh, why didn't I think of that, keep an open comms I'll let you know when I've got her" Dick said as he rushed off in the opposite direction. Danny changed into Phantom and headed towards the school knowing exactly where he would find his best friend.

Sure enough as Phantom phased through the door of the records room he found Tucker sitting at a computer changing his grades. The following argument lead to a fight which destroyed one of the science labs, Phantom dived behind one of the work benches to avoid a barrage of ectoblasts, _'ooh catchy name I've got to remember that one'_ Phantom thought randomly just as the communicator in his watch started beeping. "Phantom!" Robins called out from the small device "Desiree told me that if Tucker doesn't go back to normal by noon he'll be stuck that way"

"What" shouted Phantom "that's in 10 minutes", the sound of falling masonry was followed by Robin's connection cutting out. "Robin!" Phantom shouted at his wrist as a gleeful chuckling could be heard coming from the other side of the room.

"What's wrong Danny, your friend just get squished?" Tucker laughed

"That's it!" Phantom shouted standing up and grabbing a skeleton, throwing it across the room to collide with Tucker knocking him back. "Catch me if you can sucker Phantom" Phantom said waving and phasing through the floor into the girls locker room, Tucker followed and paused momentarily to take in his surroundings, this gave phantom the time needed to tackle the boy and throw him into the gym and though a basketball hoop. Phantom couldn't stop himself from laughing at that, Tucker just got more annoyed and started to grow in size becoming more mutated with ectoplasm. "Oh boy" Phantom gulped before taking off phasing though the gym and heading for Fenton works, looping around the town hall clock tower he saw he only had five minutes left, he checked Tucker was still following before turning invisible before his best friend could catch up.

"Where are you, WHERE?" shouted Tucker as a wisp of cold air escaped his mouth, he smirked and headed in the direction of Fenton works knowing that Phantom was in that general direction. Phantom reappeared above the strange building and ran straight into Tucker who grabbed the now much smaller boy grinning in his face as he pushed him down through the building and into the basement lab.

"No, don't throw me into the ghost zone, please" Phantom said.

"I wasn't going to, but that is a great idea" Tucker replied pulling Phantom to his feet and turning towards the portal to see another strangely dressed teen standing there.

"I can't let you do that Tucker" stated Robin

"Whoa you're Robin, this is so cool, what are you doing in Amity Park?"Tucker questioned his grip on Phantom loosening just as Phantom sneezed in Tucker face. Tucker grimaced and stepped back letting go of Phantom "hey cover your mouth" he said angrily just as Phantom's hands lit up with glowing green ectoplasm. Phantom stepped forwards punching Tucker in the guts and throwing him backwards with his enhanced strength which threw Tucker straight through the Fenton Ghost Catcher which separated Tucker from his ghostly self. Tucker cowered on the floor as the ghost roared at him, acting fast Robin jumped forwards grabbing a Thermos off the floor and sucking the ghost into it.

"Was that me?" asked Tucker, Phantom changed back into Danny and helped the teen off the floor

"No, it wasn't you Tucker just a genie's spell" Danny sniffed.

"Aw man I'm sorry"

"Don't worry about it dude, you were under a spell"

"Are we all good now?" asked Robin as he walked over to the panel next to the Ghost Zone Portal pushing the Thermos into the slot and emptying it into the Zone.

"Yea, did you get Desiree" Danny questioned "It sounded like you were having problems"

"Nah, she just surprised me that's all, I didn't know she could change her size and she pinned me with her hand but I got her no problem in the end" Robin smirked. The three of them made their way upstairs and to the front door to let Robin out when Tucker asked again.

"What are you doing in Amity park dude, I thought you were exclusively Gotham? And actually do you two know each other" Danny and Robin looked at each other uncomfortably before Robin replied.

"Danny was in Gotham staying with Bruce Wayne I believe" he looked at Danny who nodded before continuing "Danny, I mean Phantom was doing a patrol and we ran into each other, he helped me out for a couple of nights. I gave him my number so I could return the favour if he needed it"

"Right and when that genie changed you I may have panicked a bit so I rang him up and he came to help" Danny smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous fashion. Tucker looked between the two for a second before saying

"Oh OK, so are you staying?" he asked Robin.

"No I have to get back to Gotham, I'll see you guys around" Robin said as he opened the front door and walked out to the motor bike standing on the pavement. Danny looked at it in confusion he was pretty sure Robin hadn't come to Amity with it so where did it come from? Tucker and Danny watched as Robin sped away down the street.

* * *

Robin sped away from the house to the outskirts of Amity where he stored the bike in some storage lockers that Batman had rented and filled with equipment. He then grappled to a roof top and made his way back to the Fenton house, slipping in though the window to his room he quickly changed out of his uniform and sat in-front of his computer just as the door opened admitting Danny and Tucker.

"Hey Dude what have you been doing?" asked Tucker as he flopped down on Dick's bed obviously exhausted.

"Playing some games Doomed and Grave Puncher mostly, what you guys been up to?" Dick asked "you don't look too good Tucker" he commented

"Yea I'm exhausted, I think I might be getting that cold that's going around" Tucker said.

"You and me both buddy" Danny sniffed gabbing a tissue off from the box on Dick's desk.

"I think I'm gonna head home and get some shut eye" Tucker yawned "Later guys"

"Later" both Danny and Dick called out as Tucker left the room. A minute later the front door banged closed as Tucker walked home. Dick turned to the computer and closed doomed. Opening up the Justice League reporting programme that both he and Danny had on their computers. A red light shone from the webcam scanning Dicks face the programme announced "recognised Robin B-0-1". The programme opened showing the JL database, Dick clicked on villains and created a new entry for Desiree

"Oh come on, do we have to do this now?" Danny moaned at the thought of having to fill out another report.

"Yes now while it's still fresh in your memory" Dick said. Danny rolled his eyes and went to get his laptop so he could do his own report knowing that Dick wouldn't let him do anything else until it was finished.

* * *

The next morning Dick was woken early by his computer announcing an incoming call, he stepped out of bed and went to sit in front of his computer rubbing sleep out of his eyes he accepted the call. The cowled visage of Batman stared out out him "I read yours and Phantom's latest report" Batman started, Robin noted without even a hello or good morning. "Things could have gone better but under the circumstances well done" receiving praise from Batman was a rare event which instantly put a smile on Robins face.

"Thank you" said Robin

"That being said I need to have a word with Phantom about several points in his report, but he did well. Well enough that I believe he can handle anything that can come up in Amity Park without too much difficulty, I need you back in Gotham today if possible the Penguin in up to something and I'm going to need the back up. Make your excuses and apologies and get here ASAP."

"Is it really that desperate, I'd love to spend a few more days here"

"I'm afraid it can't wait, you'll have plenty of time with Danny and his family in future" Batman said sympathetically.

"Ok, how's the others solo missions going?" Dick asked

"Aqualad has wrapped up his mission concerning Red Arrow and Lex Luthor, the report is available to you. Miss Martian and Superboy are still in Belle Reve but their mission should be coming to an end soon. The team will be back together on missions soon if that's what you're worried about" Batman stated. Dick smiled at his mentor.

Dick looked at his clock noting that it was 7:30 "I'll be back by mid-day" Dick said, Batman nodded and cut the link leaving Dick once again alone in his bedroom. He got dressed and walked next door to shake Danny awake, Danny was shivering and sweating as he woke.

"Wow you don't look so good" Dick said

"That's an understatement" Danny croaked "I feel awful"

"Batman just contacted me, he wants me back in Gotham today" Dick whispered "I think you should stay in bed, maybe take the day off school."

"Sounds good" mumbled Danny who was already starting to drift back to sleep

"See you next week bro" Dick said quietly as he backed out of the room. Heading down stairs he went into the kitchen to grab some cereal and saw that Maddie was already sat at the table playing with some invention. "Hey Mrs Fenton" Dick waved

"Oh Dick please I've asked you to call me Maddie"

"Sorry, Maddie"

"What are you doing up this early?" Maddie asked.

"Bruce called he needs me back in Gotham today, there's some huge charity benefit going on tonight and he needs me to attend" said Dick sounding every bit the moody teenager.

"Oh that's a shame I really enjoyed having you here Dick" Maddie said "It's an interesting coincidence as well our old college friend Vlad Masters has invited us to his mansion for the weekend, he's having a college reunion"

"I'm not sure Danny will be up for going, he's sick" Dick explained.

"Oh well we'll give him the rest of the week off school if he's really sick, I'm sure I can whip something up to get him through it" Maddie said rubbing her chin in thought.

"Well my plane leaves in a little over an hour I should go and pack" Dick said

"OK dear, I'll give you a lift to the airport if you like"

"Thank you Maddie" Dick said finishing his bowl of cereal and leaving the room and wondering how to get out of that one so he could use the zeta portal in the centre of town.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey all thanks again for all the Follows, Favourites and Reviews I hope you liked this one, I don't like just repeating episodes with new characters it's kinda boring but I wanted Dick to visit Amity park and see some ghosts I thought it would be good for his character to see what Danny does when he's not with the team, but let me know what you think of it.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Agent M sat in the back of his white Humvee as it raced towards Amity Park considering the files in his hands. It had been almost a week since his meeting with Masters, and M had to say he was impressed with the man. M had originally despised the billionaire but the sheer amount of money and help the GIW was receiving from him quickly swayed his opinion. Agent M had soon used much of the 'start-up budget' as Masters called it to secure premises, technology, equipment and personnel for many new bases around the globe, the largest of which would be the one he was fast approaching now.

Vlad had also helped the agent with the anti-ecto act that he had been trying to get through the UN for years now, Mr Masters ensured him that with his political contacts getting the law ratified would be simplicity itself. M was hoping it would be done soon then he could really ramp up his ghost hunting and not even the Justice League would be able to interfere with his operations.

The car stopped and the driver got out to open the door for M, he stepped out and looked up at the concrete monstrosity that was to be their new headquarters. It used to be a large block of cheap offices, the GIW themselves had once rented offices here, but the building was outdated and needed renovating. M had bought it for it's outward appearance, just another boring building in a rather boring area of the city, hiding in plain sight as they say. M strolled through the front doors to find the first wave of renovations and high tech upgrades already well underway.

* * *

Danny strolled down the hallway of Sam's house towards the front door with Sam following closely behind. "Thanks for looking after me today Sam" Danny said to the purple eyed girl, Sam blushed and looked down at her shoes

"No problem, I'm glad you're feeling better unlike Tucker" she said gesturing to the living room where Tucker was curled up on the sofa still silently suffering with his cold. Danny laughed,

"Yea, I guess super ghost healing is good for more than just injuries, I still feel a little light-headed though"

"Your voice still sounds a little rough too" Sam commented

"Oh that might be from my Mom forcing some of her home remedies on me, I'm sure they contained a fair amount of ectoplasm" Danny said turning slightly green at the thought of those disgusting concoctions. "I think that ectoplasm came from a ghost as well, after I drank it I got this weird craving for beans"

"What, why would you think that?" Sam asked

"I was reading some of my parents research thinking it couldn't hurt to know a bit more about ghosts. Most of it I couldn't understand but there was a bit about if the ectoplasm is pure from the ghost zone then it contains energy but is pretty much inert, but if the ectoplasm is from a ghost then whatever object the ectoplasm comes into contact with can take on some characteristics of that ghost."

"EW, so you have part of another ghost inside you, isn't that like cannibalism or something"

"I hadn't thought of it like that" said Danny a little disturbed and turning an interesting shade of grey/green "my parents have done it to me a few times now, you know how my Mom likes to cook with ectoplasm. I just get some weird cravings and urges, the odd memory from the ghost but they fade within an hour or so, I suppose the ectoplasm just gets digested and turned into my own."

"You should be careful with what your parents give you Danny, being half ghost it could be very dangerous for you" Sam said suddenly very worried for her friend. Danny smiled at her, strangely happy that she was concerned for him.

"Don't worry Sam I'll be fine, anyway I have to get home before my curfew, we're going to visit Vlad tomorrow and Dad wants to set off really early. I'll see you next week OK?"

* * *

"OK bye Danny, keep out of trouble" Sam called as Danny left the house, the door closing behind him.

Danny leant against the wall of the main room in Vlad's house frowning at his parents as they danced in the centre of the floor drawing everyone's attention. _'Well at least no one's paying any attention to me'_ Danny thought to himself, not sure if he could stand the embarrassment and thanked his lucky stars that none of his class mates from Amity where here to watch the spectacle. As Danny watched his father bounce up and down on the spot he turned his thoughts to the events of last night, he was confused, was he just dreaming or did he actually get his ass handed to him by some new very powerful ghost? The ghost had also seemed oddly familiar but Danny didn't remember meeting him before. He also remembered being beaten an bruised last night but he didn't have a scratch on him when he woke this morning, of course due to his advanced healing that didn't really mean much.

Danny shrugged and changed position again walking along the wall to go and sit in a chair near the buffet table, Vlad had been trying to approach him all evening but every-time he got close Danny would change position so he had to start all over again. Danny smirked, he was quite enjoying this game and thanking the many people who got in Vlad's way trying to start conversations with the billionaire. This meant Danny would get another 20 minuets of peace before he would have to move again.

"Danny my boy!" Vlad called out right in Danny's ear making him jump, he hadn't seen Vlad approach this time, it seems Vlad had gotten wise to Danny's avoidance and had changed tact.

"Oh, hi Mr Masters" Danny replied sullenly

"Are you enjoying the party Danny?"

"S'ok" Danny shrugged non-committally.

"Listen I was hoping you could do me a small favour?" Vlad asked revealing his true purpose of tracking Danny down. Danny considered this for a moment, he didn't like Vlad but he couldn't really be too rude to him especially in his own house, his parents would ground him for life if he was.

"Sure Mr Masters, what do you need?"

"Excellent" Vlad smirked " I've got a present for your father but I've left it in the lab downstairs, I can't really leave my guests to go and retrieve it I was wondering if you would mind fetching it for me?"

"Sure I can do that" Danny said with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm, a quick errand that would get him out of the party for a few minutes and he could sneakily have a look around Vlad's lab, it was a win-win.

* * *

"Robin to Justice league, come in justice league, override H-O-J / watch tower" Robin called out whilst sprinting into the showers with a fire tornado a his back.

 _'Megan can you hear me?'_ Artemis called out with her mind trying to reach the Marian with no success.

"Robin to Phantom come in! Fentonworks Emergency override Alpha, Gamma, Echo" Robin tried again getting no response, "Argh" he growled in frustration "they've cut off our communications."

"Yea no duh" Artemis snarked as they turned on the showers only for the walls to break as the room slowly filled with water. Robin swam forwards to attach a bird'a'rang to the wall, backing up as it exploded sending the pair through the hole coughing and regaining their breath as they stood and ran for the kitchen.

"We need to get lost"

"The air vent!"

"Good, go!" robin shouted as he ran for a wall panel and started downloading the caves schematics as Artemis jumped onto the cooker and pulled the grating free of the vent. She looked back to see Robin standing by the wall

"What are you ..."

"Downloading cave blueprints, could come in..." Robin trailed off on hearing a pair of metallic footsteps approaching "Go, Go!" he said urgently as the two leapt up into the air vent and crawled around a corner narrowly avoiding a blast of fire. Robin continued to direct Artemis through the tunnels until they reached the boiler room. They hid behind one of the boilers as the figure that had been chasing them appeared wreathed in red flame, the figure produced more fire causing the machines to heat up and start to belch out gouts of steam "That's not good" Robin said as Artemis rolled her eyes at him stating the obvious again.

The pair ran to the far end of the room dodging blasts of fire from the mysterious figure, "There has to be an access port around here somewhere"

"You mean this one" said Artemis pulling up a grate and jumping down as Robin followed behind.

Robin pulled up short and plugged his arm computer into the wall "Hold up" he called to Artemis "Locking out cave motion and heat sensors so the enemy can't track us"

"Ok but who is the enemy?" Artemis asked

"Lets find out" Robin said accessing the cave's cameras and playing back events from earlier showing Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Superboy and Aqualad being attacked in the loading bay.

"So we still don't know who the enemy is, and where is Phantom? Shouldn't he be here?"

"Phantom's busy, he has to protect his home town that's why he's only part-time with the team" Robin explained

"Couldn't the league deal with that?" Artemis wined.

"Ugh" Robin groaned in frustration "look Phantom has to monitor the ghost population of Amity Park, no one else in the league is equipped to fight ghosts, not even Batman. Anyway Phantom is not our problem right now even if he could help us we have no way of contacting him, lets just concentrate on the problem at hand"

Danny strolled into the lab and began looking around, he was in no rush to get back to the party and thought he might have a look at some of the computers and experiments going on around him. After about 10 minutes he was starting to get bored, most of this seemed to be chemical experiments and he couldn't make out what half of it meant. That was when he stumbled across an old photo with one corner missing, the photo showed what was presumably his Mom and Vlad during their college years, realisation dawned as he pulled out the torn piece that has his father on it that he took from the vultures the other day.

"Oh no way!" Danny said as his ghost sense went off, Danny quickly changed into Phantom and prepared for an attack which came in the form of two ectopuses. Phantom quickly tackled the pair defeating them easily, but he didn't have time to marvel in his victory or how much he had improved since he had first fought these two as a net came flying at him from the corner of the room and electrocuting him.

"Skulker!" Phantom exclaimed bursting out of the net and flying across the room to kick the armoured ghost in his chest and send him crashing into the far wall. "How did you get back in your ectoskeleton? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"All excellent questions" Skulker said pulling a cube out of his belt and throwing it across the room "catch!" the cube expanded enclosing Phantom in a box leaving only his head free to move.

"Hey, I can't move" Phantom said just as the box electrocuted him forcing him to change back into Fenton. "ARRGGG" Danny screamed as Skulker pressed the button again causing another jolt of electricity to pass through him, an evil grin showed on his face. He approached the box with glee and extended a blade from his wrist pushing it up to Danny's throat.

"Eh, the glowing blade is new" Danny commented

"You like it, I've had some upgrades"

"Enough!" a voice called from across the room "I didn't free you to kill the boy skulker, your work is done, leave before the GIW get here" Vlad said as he strolled into view. Skulker sulked at the pronouncement but he didn't argue and just flew up phasing through the ceiling.

"Skulker? The ectopuses, what's going on?" Danny asked nervously

"Oh they are simply pawns in my little game"

"Pawns? You mean you control them?" Asked Danny thinking back to the science exhibition where the ectopuses where stealing technology "you've been using ghosts to make a profit and steal technology?"

"My boy" Vlad chuckled "I don't need them for that" he said stepping in-front of Danny so he could get a clear view Vlad allowed his transformation to wash over him becoming a vampiric looking ghost.

"You!" Danny gaped in shock "You're the ghost from last night"

"Indeed and imagine my surprise when I found out that the ghost boy is in-fact Jack's son, this will make my revenge all the sweeter" Vlad grinned

"Revenge?"

"Of course, Your fathers bumbling cost me years of unimaginable pain lying useless in a hospital bed. Luckily I embraced my new being and it allowed me to climb to heights I couldn't have even dreamed of whilst in college. Now I have an ultimatum for you my boy, by the end of tonight Jack Fenton will be dead, your mother will require a shoulder to cry on and I will be only too happy to oblige. It will take time but I am a quite patient man, but your mother will come around to see me as more than a friend and we will become a family together. You are the only one who could throw a wrench into my plan so I will ask you this, renounce your father swear your loyalty and obedience to me and I will allow you to live a relatively normal life, I'll even allow you to keep seeing those sidekick friends of yours."

"Wow, you are one seriously crazed up foot loop, that is never going to happen" Danny stated with finality "and what's with the monologuing I thought villains only did that in comic books and bad movies."

"Laugh whilst you still can boy!" Vlad said angrily "you won't have a chance later" Vlad transformed back into his human self and then walked over to a computer panel, inputting a code. a door at the far end of the room opened and two men in white suits walked in. "These gentlemen are from the Guys In White or GIW for short have you heard of them Daniel?" he asked, Danny shook his head not wanting to speak. "Ah a shame, they are a former government agency now owned by yours truly. Their job is to hunt and capture or destroy ghosts, I have informed them of your unique circumstances and they are eager to see how that works"

"What?" Danny croaked fear evident in his voice.

"Oh I imagine they want to run a few experiments on you it will probably be quite painful, are you sure you wouldn't like to reconsider my offer"

"Go to hell Vlad, there's no way you can get away with this" Danny said as he quickly pressed the panic button on his watch hoping the others would come and rescue him.

"I assume your referring you your friends the sidekicks" Vlad chuckled "They are rather busy with their own problems at the moment, by the time they realise you are gone it will be far too late. Besides that box you are in also blocks any signals you may be trying to send so no calling for help I'm afraid" Vlad then turned to the two agents "you may take him away now" He said passing over the remote for the box and then turning away to walk back upstairs to his party.

"VLAD! NO, YOU CAN'T DO THIS" Danny screamed "ARRGGG" Vlad chucked at the unmistakeable sound of electricity,

"Silence scum!" one of the Agents shouted at the boy just as the lab doors closed behind Vlad.

* * *

Maddie paced on the steps outside of the wrecked mansion, last night had been a disaster. A ghost had shown up and possessed Jack causing him to run riot attacking people and destroying the mansion. Maddie had managed to force the ghost out of Jack and defeat it using the weapons on the RV but Jack had been severely injured in the process. Dawn broke with the sound of sirens as ambulances, police and the fire brigade arrived to rescue victims and put out the fire that was slowly gutting the once grand building. Maddie watched as Jack was strapped onto a stretcher and pushed into the back of an ambulance.

"Mom" called Jaz "They're taking dad to the Hospital the police are going along, they want to question him when he wakes up."

"Ok honey, I want you to go with him please, they still haven't found Danny, I can't leave without him"Maddie said gently pulling Jaz into a hug for a minute trying to hide the shake in her voice. Jaz wasn't fooled for a second but pretended not to notice.

"I'm sure they'll find him soon, call me if there's any news" Jaz said.

"Likewise" Maddie with a small smile. Jaz turned and walked towards the ambulance climbing in beside her father. Maddie watched the vehicle dive off and then turned back to stare at the building watching the last of the fires be extinguished she felt her anxiousness increase, they could now start searching the building. She was terrified of what they would find, her mind filling with images of blackened bodies, she chocked back a sob and waited for any news. She itched to run past the police cordon and start searching for herself.

"Mrs Fenton" a voice sounded behind her, she turned to see a police man approaching, he took his cap off as he got closer something Maddie knew was a bad sign.

"Yes" she said with a wobble in her voice

"I'm afraid we haven't been able to find your son" he stated

"What do you mean?" Maddie asked, shock clear on her face.

"Its possible he escaped the building before the fire started, we have searched every room there is no sign that your son was in the building during the fire"

"Then where is he? Where's my son!?" Maddie almost shouted.

* * *

"We don't know" he said apologetically. Maddie's world span and she was forced to sit down suddenly "We'll keep searching" the man said before walking off. Maddie looked down at her hands wondering what to do next, she picked up her phone and started looking through her contacts until she reached the name Bruce Wayne.

"Artemis, are you with us?" superman said shaking the girl awake "What happened here?" he asked

"What happened" Artemis shouted "the Reds happened that's what, where are they"

"Gone" said Robin

"The Reds are the leagues problem now" stated Batman "I have other priories for the team"

"What can be of higher priority than finding the Reds?" enquired Aqualad

"Let me be clear, Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League and therefore our responsibility" Batman said, continuing before he could be interrupted again"Phantom is missing"

"What?" Robin said, stunned. Batman turned to the holocomputer bringing up an article from the Milwaukee Journal showing a large mansion with part of one side collapsed and smoking.

"Phantom's last signal came from this mansion last night before the fire started, the article refers to ghosts being present. A simple house fire would pose very little danger to Phantom, and we have not been able to reach him through regular channels." Batman explained, Robin walked up beside him and started furiously typing away, ignoring everyone else in the room.

"Phantom is one of ours, we will look for him" Aqualad said looking around at the other members of his team and receiving nods from each one as they came to stand behind him, apart from Robin who was still at the computer but he too turned his head to nod at Aqualad. The team turned as one to glare at Batman as though daring him to argue, Batman nodded back.

"I expected nothing less, I will deploy you in pairs, this is information gathering only for now. We don't know what has happened it may just be that he had to go for radio silence but be prepared for any eventuality. Artemis and Aqualad, proceed to Wisconsin I want you to investigate the Mansion look for any trace of Phantom tear it apart if you have to. Miss Martian, Superboy head to Metropolis, Vlad Masters, the owner of that mansion is there, get inside his head if you can without him noticing see if he has anything to do with Phantom. Take a look around his head quarters as well see if you can find anything. Robin, Kid Flash you're going to Amity Park to try and find him, stay behind a moment you two so I can tell you where to look" Batman explained at length.

"Why can you only tell them?" Artemis asked

"Ghosts are notoriously protective of their haunts, I will not reveal Phantoms lightly it would be like informing people of your secret Identity."

"Oh" Artemis said with understanding. The team then split into their groups and headed for the zeta tubes as Robin finally turned away from the computer and approached Batman.

"So, Fentonworks?" Robin questioned as Kid Flash frowned in confusion

"Yes, Mrs Fenton is the one who first informed me of the disappearance. I told her we would do everything we can to find him" Batman said with a frown

"Erm an I missing something here?" Kid flash asked.

"Robin will fill you in on the details" Batman said to Kid Flash

"I will?" Robin said astounded.

"Kid Flash is already aware of your secret identity" Batman continued disapproval heavy in his voice "It won't take such a huge leap to fill him in on the rest, check the portal logs to make sure Phantom hasn't gone into the Ghost Zone"

"Ok got it, come on KF I've got a lot to tell you" Robin said as he walked towards the Zeta tubes.

* * *

Assistant L strolled down the long white corridor towards the large green metal door at the far end, along the way he passed the series of labs and operating theatres that were dedicated to this one subject. Assistant L shook his head, having to walk down here every hour to check on him was really starting to get to him. Finally reaching the door he slid back the panel to reveal a concrete room painted the same white as the rest of the place and brightly lit making the walls hard to look at, curled up in the far corner facing the wall was a white haired young boy.

The boy was wearing only a pair of white shorts, his upper half was covered in bandages. Assistant L surveyed the bandages, a little red and green was seeping through in some places but no yellow which was good, it meant the wounds where not getting infected. The bandages would have to be changed soon though it looked like he had pulled a few stitches. Assistant L grimaced and shut the panel, he hated this job, when he signed on he thought he would be helping combat a threat not helping monsters mutilate children.

He had a plan, an Assistant is only one rank below Agent and he would be taking his exam next week. It would give him access to more of the facility and a key card that can open the boy's door he would get him out then. L would just have to do his best to make sure he survived until then, with that thought he went in search of one of the doctors to re-do the boy's bandages and stitches.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you all for reading and for all the follow and favourites, sorry again for the long wait on the update but life gets in the way of this sort of thing I hope you all understand.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 _'6 days I've been here'_ Danny thought to himself as he was once again pulled out of his cell and forced to walk down the short corridor towards one of the labs, he was only estimating of course there were no windows in this place and he spent most of his time here sedated but there was a clock in one of the labs that he kept his eye on when he could. They had done something to him his first day here, he had been heavily sedated at the time so the memory was a foggy mess of pain and confused colours. What ever they had done had forced him into his ghost form, the manacles they then locked around his wrists kept him as a ghost and stopped him from using his powers.

He had struggled and fought at first but when he did they just strapped him down and drugged him.

Danny wasn't scared anymore, at first he had been furious and terrified in equal measure, he had screamed himself hoarse, cried and sobbed with fear and shouted insults that would scandalise a sailor. Now however he was quiet, it's not like he didn't care but he buried his feelings deep, they would only get him into trouble. Plus ignoring everything they were doing to him gave him time to plot escape. He didn't think he could do it in his present condition but if he kept up the pretence of helpless maybe they would get lax and he could regain his strength enough to get out of here, where ever here was.

The sheer amount of drugs they kept pumping into him coupled with the exhaustion of maintaining his ghost form for so long meant he now struggled to even pick up his feet. The Agent behind him shoved him forwards "Pick it up, I haven't got all day" he growled.

"It doesn't understand you, I'm surprised it can still move after all that those whack job scientists have done to it" the other Agent said. Danny wasn't entirely sure of everything they were doing to him, he knew they had cut him open more than once, thankfully they had put him under for these and kept him loaded with painkillers until he healed up. It was the stimulus tests that Danny feared most, this was where they burnt and electrocuted him, poked him with needles to trigger his nerves. It was all just to see how he reacted so they always made sure he was fully concious and clear headed for these. They also made sure he was patched up by a doctor and given time to heal between tests, Danny was sure that they just didn't want their favourite lab rat dying on them but it was curious behaviour for people who supposedly hated ghosts.

He was steered into the end lab and strapped down to the chair in the centre of the room, the two agents turned and left not even giving him a second glance. Danny, now left alone in the room started to survey his surroundings, the chair he was strapped to was a huge chrome monstrosity filled with electric motors that could reposition him in anyway the scientists wanted. One wall looked similar to his parents lab at home, a base unit with a sink. The rest of the unit was filled with an intricate glass set-up, all flasks and tubes bubbling away with coloured liquids, the movement of which was mesmerising and could almost be considered pretty if it weren't for the fact that some of those beakers were filled with his blood both red and green. The other wall only contained a desk with a laptop sitting innocuously amongst piles of messily stacked papers.

The final wall was the most puzzling, a floor to ceiling pane of black tinted glass covered the entire wall, Danny didn't understand the reason for this. He knew there was a room on the other side but he had never been taken in there, presumably people where watching him from the other side but why make the window so big if that where the case. And why would they tint the glass, surely they wouldn't care if he knew he was being watched. Besides he had seen enough cop shows to know there was always someone on the other side of the glass. This wall made Danny nervous, he stamped down viciously on this emotion returning to cool rationality and logic, getting emotional here would do him no good. Shaking his head at his own foolishness, getting nervous because of a wall, there where far more frightening things in this place as he well knew.

The final wall was behind him and simply contained the door though which he entered. Danny tested the shackles holding him to the chair but there was no give in them forcing Danny to simply wait patiently for the next horror to be inflicted upon him.

* * *

Sam ran forwards and jumped into the air landing behind a pile of crates just as two red ectoblasts flew over her head and slammed into the opposite wall creating a decent sized crater in the brickwork. Uncapping her Thermos Sam stood and turned in one motion lining the Thermos up with the white snake ghost currently floating in the air. She activated the device causing the familiar blue beam to shoot out hitting the ghost, the ghost screeched as its form melted and distorted being pulled into Thermos. Sam capped the Thermos and walked around to the other side of the crates sliding down them to sit on the floor with her back to them she called out "Tucker? You still there?"

Tuckers head poked around another pile of crates at the opposite end of the warehouse, after checking that it was all clear he walked up to Sam and sat down beside her. Sam sighed and put her head on tucker's shoulder closing her eyes for a minute "How we doing?" she asked.

"That was the fifth ghost tonight" Tucker said checking his tablet "but there are no more ghost alerts so that's good". Tucker and Sam had 'borrowed' a few ectodetectors from the Fentons and placed them around town to give them warning of any ghosts showing up and had taken up Danny's job of protecting the town whilst he was gone.

"They're getting more frequent" Sam said stifling a yawn

"Yea they're getting cocky now that Danny's gone"

"He'll be back" Sam said with conviction.

"About that, I have an idea" Tucker said nervously, Sam suddenly became alert sitting up straight and looking at tucker.

"You have a way to find him?" she questioned, hope clear in her voice "It's been nearly two weeks why have you waited?"

"I spent the past week writing a computer programme, it's the most complex one I've ever done. It's designed to look through every database it can get access to for any reference to Danny. I haven't used it yet because it's clever, it can hack into pretty much anything that I can."

"so every computer on the planet then" Sam said dryly

"Yea pretty much" Tucker smiled wistfully "once I use it though I can't stop it and it will probably put us on most countries most wanted lists for hacking into their government databases"

"Oh" Sam said looking at her feet as she considered the pros and cons of this option.

"I would strongly advise against that action" A voice called from the far corner of the warehouse, Sam and Tucker quickly jumped to their feet suddenly very awake and alert to potential danger. A figure walked towards them slowly materialising out of the shadows with another following close behind. Sam and Tucker dropped their guard stance in shock as Batman and Robin came to stand in-front of them.

"Phantom's disappearance has come to the Justice League's attention, we are on the case" Batman said simply

"But we could use you're help" Robin continued "we know how good you are with computers Tucker, we can get you Justice League authorisation you will be able to access nearly all databases and computers on the planet legally"

"you will be officially employed by the league as a junior data technician, as you are below the age of 16 you will need your parents permission" Batman said holding out a tablet for Tucker to take.

Tucker was stunned, he numbly took the tablet and looked at it. It was top of the line not even out on the market yet and Batman just handed to him like it was nothing "er sure I can do that"

"The tablet is already linked to the Justice League database, it will only work for you and it will also only work once you get your parents to sign it" Robin continued. Sam had been watching the whole exchange in silence but spoke up now

"You know Phantom?" she asked shakily, Batman turned to look at her and nodded

"He has assisted us with several missions and he also keeps us apprised of the ghost situation here"

Sam clenched her jaw making sense of Danny's bruises and avoidance when they asked him about them.

"Why didn't he tell us?" she asked

"We made him promise not to" Robin cut in quickly "he wanted to, but we wanted to keep it quiet, if people had known he was working with us it would have made him a target for the many enemies of the Justice League"

"Fat lot of good that did him" Sam snorted

"We will find Phantom." Batman stated with finality "Now you have done good work here in tackling the ghost problem, but as you said earlier the ghosts are on the increase maybe because Phantom has gone and you two look exhausted, when was the last time you slept?" he asked. Tucker and Sam glanced at each other and shrugged, "as I thought, I'm sending Green Lantern and Martian Man Hunter to Amity. They should be here in a day or so, they will help you with the ghosts but you will need to give them Thermoses and other ghost weapons and show them how to use them can you do that?" Batman enquired.

"Sure no problem" Sam said with no small amount of relief, as Danny's back up band as they liked to call themselves, they were pretty good at catching ghosts, they had plenty of practice but the sheer number of them was starting to wear them down.

"One more thing" said Robin "a word of warning, we think Phantom's disappearance has something to do with the Guys In White, one of their vans was seen leaving Masters Mansion before the fire started and the organisation is becoming more active. Be careful of them and don't get in their way"

"Get some sleep, oh and Tucker delete that programme, if I see one trace of it in the internet I will be arresting you, we'll be in touch" Batman said finally as he and Robin turned away to be swallowed by the shadows once again.

* * *

Aqualad walked into the main room of the cave and sat at the head of the table they had set up there, the rest of the team would be arriving shortly. It was time the team talked over all of their findings and came up with a plan that would help them find Phantom. It has been two weeks since he went missing and everyone was worried, the amount of time he had been gone now shifted their focus almost entirely to kidnapping scenarios. The zeta tube activated and announced Robin's arrival the boy wonder walked over to the table and sat beside Aqualad,

"Hey Kaldur how you holding up" Robin asked

"As well as can be expected" he replied "How about you" he enquired, Kaldur knew Robin and Phantom where closer with each other than with the rest of the team.

"I'm OK" he said, however he was clearly tired and it showed as a stain in his voice. Superboy and Miss Marian approached from the direction of the loading bay as Kid Flash and Artemis came from the Kitchen. All four took their seats and waited for Kaldur to begin,

"I'm sure you're all aware that it has now been two weeks since Phantom's disappearance making the likely hood of him simply loosing contact or going off grid negligible" He explained receiving nods from around the table "we now need to discus what we have found and where we go from here."

"I'll start" Miss Martian said "I've investigated Vlad Masters and his company with Superboy's help, he escaped the fire at his mansion and flew immediately to Metropolis. Despite this no one saw him leave and he would not see anyone for several days afterwards, staying locked in his office. We tried to gain entry to talk to him but his office is surrounded by some sort of forcefield, all official requests to speak to him have been denied"

"Which is suspicious on it's own doesn't anyone think" Kid Flash chimed in

"Suspicious yes but not illegal, it is a known fact that Vlad Masters does not approve of the Justice League" Aqualad stated

"Huh, we should just break in and squeeze some answers out of him" Superboy said aggressively

"As much as I would enjoy that we must operate within the law and there is no evidence to suggest Masters is involved" Aqualad said trying to keep Superboy calm.

"We investigated the Mansion" Artemis said turning to look at everyone "we used some Fenton tech Robin got for us to scan the place, it detected three ectosignatures, one was definitely Phantom's it shows that he was fighting another ghost. The other two signatures are unknown but at least we know other ghosts are involved, the League has purchased the plans for ectodetectors and is mass producing them, we can place them in every city on the globe, that way if one of these signatures or Phantom's surfaces we will know about it." Artemis concluded

"Another thing from the mansion are eyewitnesses of the ghost fight there and of a van leaving the premises with a GIW sign on the side. It seems almost as though the fight was a distraction to let the van get away" Aqualad said

"A pretty lousy distraction if people noticed the van" KF commented

"It would be pretty hard not to notice a bright white van with an large GIW logo on the side" Artemis retorted.

"This makes the GIW our main suspects, they have also pushed through some legislation against ghosts recently making it hard for us to investigate them" Robin explained, tapping away on his arm computer he made a holoscreen appear in front of each person. "The anti-ecto act, I can't believe that they managed to get this approved, it essentially states that ghosts are not people they don't have emotions and can't feel pain so they can't be reasoned with. Which we all know is bull, it gives them the power to detain ghosts indefinitely and to even kill ghosts on the spot with no repercussions. If the GIW do have Phantom we can't legally get him back"

"Oh to hell with that, if we find out where he is I don't know about the rest of you but I wont stop until we have him" Superboy said thumping the table at the end of his sentence "nobody messes with one of ours and gets away with it"

"I agree" said the rule abiding Kaldur startling everyone "despite what this legislation says we know ghosts to be just as emotive and able to feel pain as any human, we just need Phantom to prove it." Aqualad paused for a moment to think and then continued. "I think we are forgetting the main purpose of this team, we are covert ops, once we find Phantom we can retrieve him without anyone knowing it was us." the whole team nodded in agreement, "what did you find in Amity?" he questioned Robin and Kid Flash.

"Phantom has a portal to the Ghost Zone" Kid Flash started "but it hasn't been used recently which means he's still in our world, which is something I guess"

"We also tracked down some of his friends" Robin said pulling up an image of a black skinned teenager in a red beret "This is Tucker Foley he happens to be a genius when it comes to computers, he's even better than me and that's saying something. We told him about the GIW he will be tearing into their computers even as we speak"

"Wait where was I for this, and you told him?" Kid Flash asked

"You were sleeping, can't blame you after running at full speed around the city all day, and I couldn't tell him outright because Batman had turned up but I'm sure he got the hint."

"Recognise Batman A-0-1" the zeta tubes called out as the famous detective marched out of the transportation device.

"Computer, national news" he said causing a screen to appear in the air showing what looked like a giant plant crushing a building as various league members fought against it. "The phantom situation will have to wait for now, suit up I have a mission for you."

* * *

Vlad stood with the other members of the light watching as cities around the world were terrorised by the giant plant creatures, Vlad had to admit to being impressed with the scope of the light's plans.

"So Vlad care to fill us in on the Phantom situation?" Lex enquired

"Of course, Phantom refused my offer but that was not unexpected. He is now within my custody and my scientists have completed the initial round of tests, we are now working on ways of making him more … co-operative" Vlad told the group. "you have my thanks Lex for providing a distraction for that annoying team of sidekicks whilst I took Phantom"

"oh it was nothing" said Lex waving off the gratitude "T. was quite happy to help"

"Speaking of which, this group of junior superheroes is proving to be quite effective" Vandal Savage commented as they watched Robin and Miss Martian destroy the large plant that was controlling the others. "Perhaps others within their group can be persuaded or coerced to our side"

"An interesting thought" The Brain said "controlling zee future superheroes would be quite beneficial no?"

"Indeed" stated Queen Bee "I would be quite interested in a little revenge against the brats for destroying my operations in the desert."

"Revenge will be yours my lady I can assure you of that" Lex said not taking his eyes from the screens.

"Very well, I will leave it to each of you to find ways to influence the children" Vandal said moving forwards to watch as the leaguers arrived to take down the in-justice league. "with the in-justice League serving as our proxy we are now free to move, and shadows still conceal our Light"

* * *

Robin marched down the prison corridor towards the interview room where the Joker was waiting, _'I so don't have time for this, I should be looking for my brother not pandering to the whims of a lunatic'_ he thought to himself. Reaching the room he hesitated in front of the door, the in-justice league had been defeated two days ago, the Joker had quickly been packed off to Arkham and a nice padded cell but he hadn't gone quietly. He had somehow slipped his cuffs and attacked two guards who were now in the hospital, the Joker had then demanded to speak to Robin and wouldn't talk to anyone else. Robin had been ready to tell him to go to hell but Batman had forced the issue insisting that Robin squeeze as much info out of the man as he could.

Robin was now standing outside the interview room with only a reinforced door between him and a mad man. Robin sighed and entered the room, the Joker was sat at a metal table with his hands manacled to the surface. He was wearing orange overalls and the make-up had been washed off his face making him appear much less threatening. Robin wasn't fooled for a second and chose to stay by the door leaning against the wall in what he hoped was a relaxed nonchalant pose. "What do you want?" Robin asked rudely

"Ooh bird brain is in a bad mood I see, you shouldn't be angry it raises the blood pressure" the Joker said with a laugh.

"If you're not going to tell me why I'm hear I might as well leave" Robin said turning to the door,

"What in no mood to chit-chat? And here I thought you were a nice boy, but very well I have some information for you"

"Why would you give me some information?" Robin asked sceptically

"Give you?" the Joker laughed "why would I give you anything, no you're going to have to work for it." Robin simply raised an eyebrow at this "I hear you're missing someone" the Joker giggled "lose an entire person did you how careless of you"

Robins eyes widened and he strode forwards grabbing the front of the Jokers uniform he pulled him forwards "you know where Phantom is? TELL ME!"

"now now bird brat it's not that easy see" the Joker smiled completely unconcerned with Robins proximity "someone, who shall remain nameless, screwed me over so I want to get back at them and the only way to do that is to help you. But I really don't want to help you so I'm in a pickle here it's gonna require some thinking". Robin let go and stood back not knowing what he could say or do to get the Joker to cough up the information, he just watched as the joker starting humming to himself whilst staring at the ceiling apparently deep in thought.

"I know, I'll tell you a riddle, not really my thing riddles but if you figure it out then I didn't help you and I still get the pleasure of screwing over my competitor" the Joker said. Robin wasn't really following the logic here but anything was better than nothing.

"Fine" he said quietly

"OK now bird brains listen carefully because I'm not going to repeat myself are you ready" the lunatic asked. Robin nodded, the camera in his mask was recording everything anyway in case he missed anything.

"Ok here goes:

Betsy was her name,

together we played a game,

standing on dragons of red flame,

you'd best find him before he's no longer sane,"

"That's it?" Robin questioned

"Yea that's all you're getting out of me, now get lost wonder boy" the Joker started laughing hysterically "I wonder what's going to left of him when you find him". Robin left the room knowing he wasn't going to get anything more from the mad man, he started going over the riddle in his head as he headed back to the cave, he needed to do some research.

* * *

Danny was lying in his cell again, the room was kept brightly lit 24/7 which meant getting any sleep was almost impossible so he tried to curl up the corner and cover his head so the light wouldn't be as bad. The door behind him let out an obnoxious beep and slid open, Danny's ears weren't working well today so he didn't hear the footsteps approaching him. Two hands dipped into his armpits and pulled him up so he was standing and facing the agent in front of him. The agent was saying something but Danny couldn't understand him, his vision was blurry and he was tired, why wouldn't they just let him sleep.

Danny suddenly felt a needle in his arm and looked down in surprise, they never injected him in here. There was burning itching sensation spreading out from the injection site and getting worse every second, Danny started to shout only to have a hand cover his mouth to stifle the sounds. "I'm sorry Danny" A voice whispered in his ear, the sound of his name made Danny stop struggling "you need to be quiet I'm trying to get you out of here but it's not going to be easy" the voice said.

Danny felt his hearing return, his sight started to sharpen and he felt a sudden burst of energy as all his aches and pains fell away. "What did you inject me with?" he asked in awe.

"Pure ectoplasm along with some sugars and vitamins, everything you need to get you back on your feet and flush the drugs out of your system" the voice said quietly. Danny turned to look at the face of a young agent perhaps in his mid 20's, he looked nervous and agitated. "I'm getting you out of here but we have to be quick the guard at the entrance has stepped away for a few minutes but we don't have long. With that he grabbed Danny's hand and pulled him out the door running past the labs and out of the corridor.

"Where exactly are we?" Danny asked

"Underground" the Agent said as he pulled them along another corridor "this place is huge and they made the layout deliberately confusing to slow down any escapees" they rounded a bend and came to a set of double doors the agent pulled out a key card and swiped it opening the doors. Danny desperately kept hold of the agent's hand, it was only genuine human contact he had had in a while and he didn't want to give it up, he didn't even care how it made him look. "I'm Lance by the way, they put you in the deepest part of the complex, completely separate from all the other ghosts I think they have something special in mind for you"

"Don't care, just want to get out" Danny said

"We're not far from the lift we can take it all the way to the surface" Lance said as he rounded a corner. A shot rang out and Lance stopped dead. Danny felt something touch his hand and looked down to see Lance's red blood dripping from his sleeve and running over their intertwined fingers. Lance collapsed to the ground with a bullet hole in his shoulder. In front of them stood three more agents with their weapons raised, Lance gasped in pain and tried to move towards the wall,

"I'm disappointed in you Agent L, you were one of out most promising new agents" one of the men sighed pointing his gun at the downed man's head.

"NOOOO!" Danny screamed leaping forwards to kick the man in the back of his knee causing him to loose his footing and the shot to go wide, Danny head butted the man making him shout in pain. Another agent approached gun pointed at Danny. The ghost boy jumped and flipped using a manoeuvre that Dick had taught him to get behind the man and punch him in the kidneys. Spinning to deliver a kick to the other man's legs knocking him over. He then punched the man in the face breaking his nose and knocking him out. Danny was tiring quickly now as his injuries were taking their toll.

Danny turned back to the first man and wrestled the gun from his grip he turned to point it at the man when Lance shouted "Look out!" but it was too late, something touched the back of Danny's neck causing a white hot flash of pain then everything went dark.

* * *

 **A/N: Two chapters in two days I doubt I can match that for a while, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to my regular reviewers for sticking with me, as always the more reviews I get the more inspired I am to write. Tell me what you thought of the joker in this chapter, I tried my best but he is a difficult character to anyone figure out the riddle? post in your review and I'll let you know if you are close.  
**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

* * *

Robin marched into the cave as the Zeta tube deactivated behind him, he walked into the centre of the room and activated the holocomputer typing up the riddle and going through it again to try and decipher it. Kid Flash, who was sat in the kitchen mechanically munching on some cereal, looked up when Robin came in. He stood and walked over to where the boy wonder was typing at the computer.

"Hey Rob" he said

"KF" Robin acknowledged "where's everyone else?"

"Getting some desperately needed shut eye"

"Why aren't you sleeping then?" Robin asked

"Was hungry" KF lied gesturing at the half-eaten bowl of cereal still sitting on the kitchen counter "what you been up to?"

"Went to see the Joker, he told me he knows where Danny is"

"Dude that's awesome, should I get the others up? Where is he?" Kid Flash replied excitedly.

"He wouldn't tell me, but he gave me this riddle, said if I figure it out I can find Danny"

"Ok" Kid Flash said with confusion "and you just accepted that?"

"No, but I knew he wasn't going to give me anything else and I didn't want to waste time. You can get the others up I could use a fresh perspective on this" Robin explained.

"Sure" said Kid Flash as he headed off in the direction of the personal quarters. Walley shook his head, after finding out about Phantom being Dicks brother he had started to notice things about Robin. He looked almost constantly tired, he never smiled anymore or told jokes and when others tried to be light-hearted he quickly put them down, making them focus on the task at hand. Walley had tried having a word with him about his effect on the team but Robin had exploded in his face, ever since then he had talked as little as possible to the speedster. Walley prayed they found Danny soon not just for the ghost boy's sake but in order to get Dick back before Walley lost his best friend for good.

Walley banged on doors as he moved through the accommodations shouting to the occupants that Robin had a new lead and needed everyone in the main room. He then headed back to Robin knowing everyone else would be there in a minute or two. Kid Flash started reading the riddle on the screen as the others gathered, Robin waited until everyone was in the room before he started talking.

"The Joker knows where Danny is but he's not saying, he did however give me this riddle I need some help figuring it out" Robin said pausing whilst everyone read the riddle on the screen.

"Have you considered that this may simply be misinformation on the Jokers part or at worse a trap" Aqualad spoke up,

"That's why I haven't gone to Batman yet this may prove to be a wild goose chase but it's the only lead I've got at the moment, it's worth looking into at least" he said

"As I understand it Dragons are mythical creatures from Earth's past, correct?" Miss Martian said staring at the screen.

"Yea" said Artemis "but they aren't real, I don't see how this helps us"

"Then maybe it's referring to a place where there are famous dragon legends or symbolism?" Miss Martian continued.

"Dragon legends originate in Europe particularly in the British Isles" said Robin pondering this information "but I don't know of any places in particular, and what does Betsy have to do with it?"

"Have you done a place name search for Betsy?" Aqualad enquired.

"Sure, there are a few places the world over but none that have anything to do with Dragons" Robin stated

"Red dragons in particular" Kid Flash said with a slight smile.

"Oh, duh!" Superboy suddenly said surprising everyone, walking up to the computer he started typing "I knew something about the backs of Red Dragons sounded familiar." Superboy went on the internet and searched flags of the world, running through the pictures until he found the one he was looking for. A flag split into green and white with a red Dragon in the centre, the flag of Wales.

"Superboy you're a genius" Robin said with delight,

Superboy shrugged "I have my moments" he said with a glare at the surprised faces of his team "what you think I can't be smart?" he asked.

"Well you don't exactly come across as the cerebral type" Artemis observed dryly.

"This is good" Robin said "and it gives me an idea, what if Betsy isn't spelt as you would expect but instead has a Welsh spelling." He began typing furiously on the keyboard before pulling up a single result. "There's a small village in the Snowdonia National Park called Betws-y-coed, the area was formally known for it's mining industry but it's now a popular tourist destination. The perfect place to hide a secret base?" he asked almost hopefully turning to Aqualad for his decision. Aqualad considered the information on the screen for a moment and then looked to each of his team mates and sighed.

"We shall investigate. We will go posing as tourists to question the locals and scan the area before we act. Make sure to pack your suits and equipment, Miss Martian please prep the Bioship for launch."

* * *

Sam sat in the reception of the GIW headquarters in Amity, after being told of their involvement in Danny's disappearance from Robin they had worked on a way of getting information from them. Tucker couldn't hack into their databases because quite simply the GIW used a closed network that was not connected to the internet so he had no way in. They then worked on getting someone into the GIW's building, they couldn't simply break in as it was too heavily guarded. Their opportunity came when the GIW advertised for a personal assistant job. They had both applied but only Sam got an interview, so here she was sitting patiently for the agent to turn up.

"Come on Sam get moving!" Tuckers voice sounded in her ear from the pair of Fenton-Phones she was wearing. They were using them because the signal was routed through the ghost zone so that the GIW couldn't intercept or block the call. She coughed twice into her hand, their code for no, they had come up with a quick way of communicating should others be around to hear her talk such as the receptionist who was eyeing her from behind the desk. Tucker was waiting in the Library just around the corner from the office block, he was presiding over his laptop and waiting for Sam to plant the device he had given her in the building's servers so he could hack into the GIW's files.

Growing tired of waiting she stood and approached the receptionist, "excuse me but where are the ladies?" she asked politely. The receptionist scowled at the young girl before replying,

"Straight down the corridor first door on your left" she said nodding to the entrance to the side of the desk.

"Thanks" said Sam as she moved towards the corridor, quickly moving out of the receptionists view she walked past the toilet doors and entered the door at the end of the corridor that said restricted access. "Ok Tucker where now?" she asked as Tucker accessed the building's schematics,

"These schematics are a little old but I think the main computer room is at the back of the building in the basement assuming they haven't moved it" Tucker explained "Take the door to your left" he said looking at the location of the tracker in Sam's Fenton-Phones. "Down the stairs and then turn right the door should be in-front of you" he said directing her.

"We have a problem" Sam said looking at the steel door baring her way with 'Server Room: Restricted Access' printed on the door. "The door's locked it has some kind of card scanner on the wall beside the door" she said to Tucker.

"Ok Sam can you get the front off that card scanner?" he asked

"One sec" Sam said as she took the pin out of her hair and used the metal edge to pry the plastic front off the scanner. "Got it, what now?"

"What do you see?"

"Erm, the scanner part for the card to go through attached to a small circuit board that has wires running into the wall" she said not knowing what exactly she was supposed to be looking for.

"Alright, I want you to rip out that circuit board without pulling the wires out of the wall" Tucker explained, Sam looked up in alarm.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked.

"Yea just make sure you don't pull those wires out of the wall"

"OK here goes" Sam gripped the circuit board with one hand and the wires with another and pulled, the circuit board came away easily the wires ripping free but thankfully remaining in the wall. "Done what now?" Sam asked.

"Ok there should be three wires, brown, blue and yellow"

"Yea I see those"

"I want you to cross the blue and yellow wires, don't touch the exposed wire or you'll get a shock, that should open the door." Tucker explained, Sam rolled her eyes but did as she was told. The two wires sparked and the door slid open with arthritic creaking.

"Awesome, Tucker it worked!"

"You sound surprised, you should trust me with these things you know" Tucker said sounding mildly offended, Sam paused for a second regretting her choice of words.

"I'm sorry Tucker, you're right and I do trust you, you know that right?" she said as she moved into the room, lights flickering on as she moved. Tucker cleared his throat loudly,

"Yea, I know Sam" he said his voice sounding rather croaky all of a sudden, Sam smiled and shook her head _'Boys'_ she thought with amusement. "Ok now you want to find the server labelled 'Master Control'" Tucker said getting back to business, Sam walked around the large room moving down lines of large humming servers that presumably was used by the entire building.

"Found it" She announced after a minute of searching,

"OK now take out the device I gave you" Tucker said, Sam took the item out of her handbag. It was disguised to look like a hard-drive with one wire coming out of it. "Right now make sure you plug it into the right slot like I showed you or it wont work"

"Got it" Sam said triumphantly as she plugged it in and watched the green LED come on showing it was working. "you getting anything yet?"

"Oh yea, their firewalls are made of tissue paper, I guess they didn't expect anyone to infiltrate their building? Get going Sam you don't have to stay there while I search for Danny get back here as soon as you can."

"No worries I'm on my way, see you in a minute" she said as she walked back to the door, closing it and replacing the front on the broken card scanner so no one would notice for a while. She then made her way back to reception, Sam slumped her shoulders and faked and ill expression, the same one that fooled her parents constantly and approached the receptionist. "Can you please give my apologies to Agent M, I don't think I'm fit for this job" she said to the receptionist who grinned at her and replied,

"It would be my pleasure."

Sam resisted the urge to scowl at the stuck-up woman, but only just. Sam then turned and exited the building passing though the security gates and onto the street. She then hurried to meet up with Tucker who was presumably going over the data from the GIW. A shadowed figure detached itself from the side of the building and followed in Sam's wake.

As Sam reached the Library she felt a shiver go down the back of her spine and turned to look down the street, she was sure someone had been staring at her then but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary now. Shrugging to herself she walked into the building and went to find Tucker who had secreted himself away into a darkened corner of the massive library. "Hey" she said making Tucker look up, "Hows it going?"

"I uploaded a virus to the GIW network it's looking for any reference to Danny and downloading it for me, they'll know they've been hacked but there is very little they can do about it at the moment" Tucker said with glee. "I'm already getting quite a bit of data from it but most of it is heavily redacted, I'm printing it off now we'll have to read through it all to see if we can find anything" he explained.

"OK I'll go get the printouts" Sam said getting up and crossing the room to the library's printer bank, collecting the printouts she returned to the table and the pair of them started reading though the files. It took them over an hour to find anything of importance, a single e-mail that had been sent from an Agent L to a General A Pendragon. The e-mail was mostly in code so they couldn't understand it and had almost ignored it but two words sprang off the page at Sam and they were Phantom and Betws-y-coed.

"Look" she said to Tucker pointing at the page, "what does Betws-y-coed mean?" she asked, Tucker turned to his laptop and did a quick web search.

"It's a small village in Wales" Tucker said, Sam took out her phone and started searching through her contacts "What are you doing?" Tucker asked only to be silenced as Sam held up her hand and put the phone to her ear.

"Hey! Tarquin, look I know it's against my parents rules but I need the jet …. yea we're going to Cardiff a friend of mine has gotten himself in a bit of trouble and we have to go and help him … Oh come on PLEASE I'm begging you! … Awesome thanks I'll meet you at the airfield in an hour? … Great see you then" Sam put down the phone and looked at Tucker "We need to go to the Fentons and erm, borrow some of their equipment"

"You're not going anywhere without me" said a voice suddenly from behind the nearest bookshelf, Sam and Tucker both yelped in surprise and jumped up to face the unknown person. The person who rounded the bookshelves was dressed in a brown trench coat, sunglasses and fedora, the person slowly removed the items to reveal her identity.

"Jazz?" Sam said shocked,

"I knew you would find Danny eventually but I also knew you wouldn't tell me because you think I don't know about Danny being Phantom, but I do so I'm coming with you" Jazz finished somewhat awkwardly.

"The more the merrier I guess" Sam said slightly in awe of Jazz's stealth skills.

"I can't believe the trench coat thing actually works" Tucker said

"Neither can I" Jazz said with a smile.

"You realise that this place is quite far away from Cardiff don't you? And that it's practically in the mountains how are we going to get there?" Tucker asked Sam.

"Technicalities we can work out later, now we need to gather up as many weapons as we can and get to the air field"

"I know where my parents hide the best stuff" Jazz volunteered

"Lead the way" Sam said as they left the library behind.

* * *

Miss Martian piloted the Bioship in stealth mode over the small village of Betws-y-coed as she used the ship's sensors to scan for anything out of the ordinary. "I'm not detecting anything out of the ordinary for the area" she said to the rest of the team.

"Very well, put us down in an isolated spot just outside of the village" Aqualad instructed, Miss Martian then adjusted their course taking them half a mile out of the village and finding an out of the way field to land in. Once they came to a complete stop the team exited the bioship leaving it in stealth mode at the edge of the field "Everyone remember where we parked" Aqualad said. "We will split into pairs and act as tourists, look around a few shops, talk to the locals and any visitors see what info you can gather. We'll meet back here in an hour" he concluded. The group spilt up into their preferred pairings, Superboy with Miss Martian, Artemis with Kid Flash and Robin with Aqualad, and headed into the centre of the village.

Aqualad watched as the other two pairs spilt off and walked off into the distance, he turned to Robin who was already walking into one of the souvenir shops. The front of the shop was filled with stuffed animals, the interior consisted of a garish arrangement of pens, key-rings, mugs, plates and cheap clothing bearing the Betws-y-coed name and the welsh flag. Robin and Aqualad made a show of perusing the shelves as they waited for the shop keeper to finish dealing with the only other customer in the shop. As the customer, who appeared to be in her seventies, made her slow exit Robin picked up a keyring and approached the till.

"Hi there" Robin said striking up conversation of the middle aged blond woman behind the desk,

"Hello" she replied "American?" she asked noting his accent.

"Yea, we're visiting some family in England and decided to do the whole road trip thing" Robin said with a smile "my family recommended visiting Snowdonia, it really is a beautiful place"

"Oh, we don't usually get many Americans around here. I heard you mostly stick to London and don't go anywhere else"

"Is that why there's not many people around here, I thought this was supposed to be a really touristy area?" Robin asked subtly

"Oh yea it usually is, this time of year it's nearly always none stop but we've been having some troubles lately and it seems to have scared off most of our customers" she said mournfully.

"Oh really what kind of trouble?" Robin asked, the woman's eyes widened and she nervously glanced at the security camera in the corner of the room. She looked back at Robin and then down at the Keyring on the desk in-front of her, picking it up she scanned the bar-code,

"That'll be £3.50 please", Robin took out a £10 note from his pocket and handed it over waiting with silent frustration as she processed the transaction and gave him his change. The woman refused to speak another word until the pair left the shop. Once outside Robin turned to Aqualad,

"She knew something but as soon as we got close to the subject she clammed up" he said angrily

"Something is going on here then and it has the locals scared, we shall question others and see if we can get anything else out of them" Aqualad stated. The Atlantean tried to get information in the next shop they went into, which sold almost exclusively coffee grounds, tea leaves and different flavours of hot chocolate, only to get stonewalled by the young shop assistant. This pattern continued everywhere they went, even the other tourists they questioned seemed reluctant to reveal anything, however something became clear everyone was avoiding the mountain to the Northwest of the village. After an hour of this they decided to head back to the Bioship and see if the rest of the team had turned anything up.

They entered the Bioship to find Artemis and Kid Flash had already returned and where glaring at each other silently across the room. _'Oh great they had another argument'_ Robin thought rolling his eyes at the pair _'we so don't have time for this'_ , "What happened now?" he asked them exasperated,

"Arrow brains over there started threatening a local" Kid Flash said,

"It worked didn't it" she threw back angrily,

"What part of undercover did you not understand?" Aqualad questioned hotly.

"Aqualad I ..."

"If Phantom is being kept in the area it stands to reason they would monitor the village for anyone snooping around, if they know we are here they may take drastic measures to ensure they are not found" Aqualad explained, Artemis's face fell as she realised her mistake.

"So" said Robin who was trying desperately to keep his temper under control "what piece of Intel did you get that was worth risking not only our lives but Phantom's and those of the people in this village?"

"Erm, some people turned up just over a month ago, they were weird. They bought some of the old abandoned mines in the area, they put up huge fences around the entrance. Then last week some of the locals kids cut through them and were messing around in the fields playing football. He wasn't sure what happened but the rumours said two of the kids ended up in hospital with bullet wounds. Over the past week everyone in the village has had a visit from two men in white suits who subtly threatened them and told them not to talk about the incident with any strangers or tourists." Artemis explained nervously.

"Well at least the Intel is useful" Robin remarked, "We'd guessed as much about the villagers being threatened but this confirms that the GIW is here and they're in the mines"

"We can get Miss Martian to scan them when she comes back" Kid Flash said and then looked around in confusion "shouldn't they be back by now."

"They're only a couple of minutes late" Robin said "we shouldn't worry yet"

It was 10 minutes before the final pair made it back to the Bioship, "sorry we're late" Miss Martian explained "we heard something worrying and had to go and check it out"

"What did you find?" Kid Flash asked,

"We have already confirmed that the GIW is in the area" Aqualad informed them.

"Well it seems that someone told the British Military about it as well and they aren't happy about it" Megan said

"They're mustering a couple of miles up the road Tanks and everything" Superboy said "we went to take a look, without them noticing us."

"They don't look like they're ready yet but they'll probably be moving out within an hour or two" said Miss M. Everyone looked at the pair in alarm,

"Our mission here just got a time limit" Robin said,

"Miss Martian can you scan the mines in the nearby mountains, we think the GIW have a base underground" Aqualad asked.

"Sure" Megan stated as she went to sit in the pilot's seat, putting her hands on the control surfaces she ordered the Bioship to scan the surrounding area underground. A 3D hologram appeared in the centre of the room growing larger as the scans filled in more details. The image showed the inside of one of the mountains and the confusion of criss-crossing passages and rooms that where hidden below the surface.

"The red dots are humans" Miss M explained "the green are ghosts, I can't isolate Phantoms bio-signature but if I had to guess I would say he is the single green dot on the lowest floor." the rest of them looked over the schematics and had to agree with Megan, the red dots where moving freely about the complex where as the green where clustered together in several groupings on different levels apart from the one lonely dot on the lowermost level.

"OK how do we get to him?" Artemis asked,

"Here" said Robin pointing to a small tunnel that branched off and reached for the surface. "It looks like there are two main entrances and they're guarded, but this tunnel has no guards I'm betting it's an air vent for one of the old mine shafts."

"Where does that come to the surface" Superboy asked, Robin brought up an image of the surrounding area and overlayed it with the image of the mines.

"On the bank of the river that runs through the village" Robin said,

"In full view of the entire village, excellent" Kid Flash said sarcastically.

"Miss Martian, can we use the Bioship's camouflage to cover us while we enter the tunnel?" Aqualad asked,

"Yea that's not a problem, we just have to be careful to stay within it's shadow"

"Very well, suit up everyone and let us go rescue our friend" Aqualad ordered.

* * *

The helicopter touched down in a field about a mile outside of the village in an attempt to not draw attention to itself. Jazz opened the door and jumped down closely followed by Tucker and Sam. Sam turned to the cockpit and waved at the overly attractive man sitting there "Thanks Tarquin I owe you one" she said into her headset

"No vorries, you save your friend now and be careful" he replied in a Russian accent just as Sam took off the headset and ran to catch up with the other two. The helicopter took off behind them as they walked onto the road and towards the village. Tucker and Sam were wearing the trademark Fenton orange jumpsuits with Jazz wearing her teal version. The jumpsuits were actually fully fitted out with integrated weapons and armour plating with shielding that can deflect most ghost attacks and would work just as well protecting them from bullets and energy weapons. The three of them pulled up the hoods and put on the goggles along with the Fenton-Phones, the goggles contained a heads-up display with a targeting function and showed data from the scanners they had in their suits.

"So we know that Danny's here we just have to find out where" Jazz said,

"Yea but we can't just go around searching every house in town until we find him" Tucker said.

"The GIW wouldn't just stuff Danny in a closet somewhere, he'll be in a highly secure facility so we need to find that" Sam explained.

"OK but where would they hide that kind of place in a sleepy welsh village?" Tucker asked,

"No idea but lets look" Jazz said. They continued walking down the road in silence all three of them using their sensors to try and scan the village ahead as they slowly came into range. "There's a lot of activity down there, wait one minute" Jazz said as she jumped over the fence at the side of the road and walked up the slight hill, feet squelching in the wet grass, so she could look down on the village. After using her goggles to zoom in and study the scene in-front of her she beckoned to the others. "Something is definitely going on here," the others also zoomed in on the village to see an evacuation going on. Soldiers where piling out of the backs of trucks and directing civilians to fill them back up again. Four tanks where slowly moving up the main road and sandbags were being used to build bunkers as soldiers set up weapon emplacements inside.

"What the hell is going on?" Sam said,

"Is that the British Army? What are they doing here?" Tucker asked,

"I'm assuming they're here for the same reason we are" Jazz said "think of it this way, would you be happy if you found out someone had built a secret base on your turf without asking you first."

"Guess not" Sam replied "all of those emplacements are facing the mountain, Maybe that's where the GIW are" she said as she scanned along the front "Look there" she pointed towards the centre of the village at the river passing through it. "Do you see that?" she asked, Jazz and Tucker turned their attention away from the massing troops and looked to see something what looked like a large patch of blurry air almost like heat haze hovering close the river bank.

"Is that something trying to be invisible?" asked Tucker,

"Well these goggles are supposed to be able to see through a ghosts invisibility, but if so why cant we make it out" Jazz said,

"Maybe its not a ghost thing but a technology thing, we should check it out" Tucker said.

"Sure, but how are we going to get past the Army" Sam pointed out,

"We go around and enter the village from the other direction" Jazz stated. Sam looked around and then nodded her head to agree,

"Ok but lets go quick and quiet" she said. The three of them descended the hill and skirted around the village, it took them nearly an hour but they eventually made it to the river and the mysterious object floating above it. "Definitely not a ghost thing" Sam said looking up at the object floating above them as they stood at the bank of the river with water flowing around their ankles. With their goggles on it appeared as a patch of blurry air like a heat haze but with a more definable boundary, when they took their goggles off the object almost disappeared from view but they could still make out the edges if they focused enough.

"Ok so we found it but we still can't get to it, it's floating too high" Jazz pointed out,

"Look over there" Tucker said pointing to the bank of the river where it rose up to meet the road. A rough concrete structure rose from the bank looking like an access point for the drains, the large rusted metal cover had been removed. Sam approached the hole and looked down seeing a set of ladders that descended into the darkness,

"Maybe they went down here" she said quietly,

"Who went down here?" Jazz asked.

"Whoever brought that" Sam said nodding to the invisible object suspended above their heads.

"Hey guys look at this" Tucker said from his position kneeling down in-front of the metal cover, the two walked over to look. The covers edges were ragged where it had been torn away from the bolts that used to hold it in place but what drew everyone's attention were the two unmistakable hand prints in the metal. "It looks like someone tore this off by hand" Tucker explained.

"Ok that definitely points to this being the entrance," Sam said "lets go down" she turned to the hole and took out a glow stick from her belt, snapping it on she dropped it in and watched as it hit the bottom.

* * *

Superman stood at the main computer terminal in the watchtower as Batman approached him, "we have a situation developing" he informed the dark knight. "The British government has discovered a secret base run by the GIW in Wales" he explained.

"What action are they taking?" Batman asked,

"They've deployed several regiments to the area with artillery support under the command of a General A. Pendragon. The British Prime minister has summoned the US President to London to explain why an American Military organisation is operating a secret base on British soil"

"I see your concern this could escalate quickly we should move to diffuse the situation …"

"The kids are gone" said Black canary as she marched into the room interrupting their conversation. Batman turned back to the computers and quickly pulled up the tracking system, he worked fast making a map appear on screen with a flashing red marker hovering over the town of Betws-y-coed.

"The Bioship is in Wales" Batman explained,

"Are you telling me they're in the middle of this?" Superman asked.

"This is a GIW facility, if the team is involved it means that Phantom is being held there"

"What? What's going on?" Black Canary asked, whilst Superman filled her in Batman was considering his next move.

"We can't allow the British to attack the facility whilst the team is inside we must buy them time to get Phantom and any other prisoners out. The GIW's current disagreements with the British government will legitimise the teams investigation however we must ensure there is little threat from the military. The three of us plus the Flash and Green Lantern will attend the scene, the closest zeta tube is in Liverpool, lets move out!" Batman ordered.

* * *

Artemis poked her head around the corner before waving the all clear to the rest of the team, they had been sneaking around the GIW complex for an hour now and were no closer to finding Phantom. The place was like a maze and every door required a key-card which slowed them down even further as they made their way towards to bottom level where hopefully they would find Phantom. The team stayed silent the whole time not even using the telepathic link set up by Miss Martian to communicate, each of them lost in their own thoughts and worries about what they were going to find in this place.

The team reached yet another steel door and Robin dutifully stepped forwards to hack the card scanner when the door unexpectedly opened. The team dropped automatically into their battle ready stance as they prepared for an attack that didn't come. Facing them were three figures in brightly coloured jumpsuits with a fourth in ragged and bloody clothing being supported by the two in orange. Robin blinked in surprise as he recognised them, "Tucker, Sam and Jasmine right?" he asked knowing full well who they were "What are you doing here?"

"Robin?" Tucker said in astonishment "we found out from the GIW that Danny was here so we had to come"

"Who's Danny?" Artemis asked, all four froze and then all started to shout different excuses all at once,

"Well you see …"

"It's complicated …"

"He's our friend and …"

"Enough!" said Aqualad cutting through the noise "explain yourselves and quickly, what are you doing here and why are you carrying a badly injured man?"

Jazz strode forwards to meet Aqualad's gaze "we're here to rescue my brother, we found this man in a cell he says he can lead us to him but he's weak and we don't have anything to help him, he keeps passing out. He said his name is Lance and he tried to help my brother escape and was punished for it."

"Yea and this place has some pretty horrific ways of torturing people as well" said Tucker in a subdued tone. Robin looked at he boy and for the first time noticed the trail of what looked like hastily cleaned up vomit down the front of his jump suit.

"What do you mean by that?" Kid Flash asked,

"We found a lab where the GIW were experimenting on ghosts" Sam said, her voice shaking with a mixture of rage and grief "they were still alive and screaming and … they were … they were..." she shook her head unable to continue describing the horrors they had seen in that lab. Horrors that were wrought by human hands.

Whilst the team took a moment to consider Sam's words Robin moved towards Lance and pulled a med-kit out of his utility belt. "Put him down and I'll see what I can do to patch him up" Robin instructed and the two teens carefully laid Lance on the floor.

"We don't have time for this we need to keep moving" Superboy growled,

"I agree, however we cannot simply leave this man here or the civilians" Aqualad said

"CIVILIANS!" Sam cried walking up to Aqualad and poking him in the chest "I'm not leaving here without Danny and you can't tell me to go anywhere." Aqualad considered the irate girl and her friends for a moment before talking on the telepathic link,

 _'Robin you know these people, can they be trusted?'_

 _'yea I would say so, it wouldn't hurt to have a little more back up plus they're loaded down with Fenton tech so if we get any problems with ghosts they would be able to deal with it'_

 _'very well they shall accompany us'_

"You will have to follow my orders if you wish to come with us" Aqualad said to the three, Tucker and Jazz briefly looked at Sam. She nodded to the pair to signal her agreement and then turned back to Aqualad,

"OK that's fine" she said,

"Good now that's cleared up, Miss Martian can you link them up?" Kid Flash said.

"Er sure if they agree" Miss Martian said uncertainly "Our group use a telepathic bond to communicate on missions so that no one can hear us if you're OK with it I can link you as well" she explained

"Sure" said Sam

"Go for it" Tucker complied,

"Why not" Jazz said somewhat reluctantly. Miss Martian connected them to the link.

 _'Link established'_

 _'Whoa this feels weird'_ Tucker commented

 _'You get used to it'_ thought Kid Flash _'yo Rob hows it coming along'_

 _'He'll be OK for now but he will need hospital treatment, I can wake him up if you like'_ Robin thought as he finished examining Lance.

 _'Wake him we need directions if he has them'_ Aqualad instructed

 _'OK here goes'_ robin said as he pushed a needle into Lance's forearm. Lance's eyes fluttered open and he looked around blearily, blinking to bring everyone into focus.

"Hey" he croaked,

"Lance?" Sam asked "are you with us?"

"Yea, not feeling too great though" he said

"I gave you a powerful stimulant it won't last long though so we need you to answer our questions is that OK?" Robin asked.

"Fire away" Lance said with a wince of pain,

"Do you know where Phantom is?" asked Aqualad.

"He's on the lowest level, take the stairs down two more floors and find lift 22-Y it will take you all the way down but you need senior level clearance to use that lift."

"I got that covered" said Tucker holding up an access card "swiped it from one of the agents we ran into"

Lance suddenly sat up and grabbed Robins wrist in a tight grip "I don't know the full details of what they've been doing to Phantom but he wont be the same person you knew. Be ready for a fight" he gasped, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out again.

"What did he mean by that" Jazz whispered fearfully into the silence that followed.

* * *

Arthur stood at the mouth of his command tent that had been set up on the common in the centre of Betws-y-coed. He was looking towards the mountain where he knew the GIW base was, his position was now established with the last few non-combatants being evacuated from the area. He had sent a messenger to the entrance of the facility about half an hour ago with terms of the GIW's surrender but hadn't heard anything back yet. Arthur scowled as he thought of the e-mail he had received last week from Lance, the idiot had decided to act on his own instead of waiting for him as he had been instructed. It had taken a full week and having to call in every favour and use every political contact he had before he got authorisation to mobilise his forces against the GIW who it seemed had their own army of lawyers and politicians who tried to fight him off. In the end it had taken a video call with the Prime Minster who had to intervene and order him to cordon off the mountain and remove the GIW from their installation.

The fact that Arthur as a General had to wait for an order from a politician before he could do anything was the hight of folly in his books, but at least he was here now. Arthur waited impatiently for the messenger to return with the GIW's response as his commanding officers moved around behind him setting up maps and issuing orders to the regiments under their control. "General we have movement on the mountain" called one of the technicians operating a drone that was surveying the area.

"Report" Arthur called out as he moved to stand behind the man,

"Six vehicles sir moving down the mountain towards our position, I'm unable to get a good look at them sir they're driving through forest" he sergeant said. Arthur looked over his shoulder at the screen and saw the vehicles in question as the occasional glint of steel shone through the canopy, they were in a loose arrow formation and heading towards the village.

"Get lower I want to see what those things are" Arthur instructed, the sergeant did as instructed and moved the drone lower so that they could get a proper picture of the approaching objects. Arthur squinted at the fuzzy picture as the done drew closer to the mountain side, one of the vehicles on the flank of the formation passed through a clearing and they got a clear view of what was coming. They were tanks, smaller than normal and faster with what looked like an energy weapon turret and made of glittering steel plating. A head popped out of the tank and the drone's telemetry cut out as the agent shot at it.

Arthur stood and turned shouting orders at he went "Prepare to receive unwelcome guests. Captain, as soon as those tanks get into range get the Challengers and artillery to open fire"

"General we have more incoming" called a voice from the other side of the room, Arthur made his way over and looked at the radar operator who said in an awed voice "It's the Justice League"

* * *

Superboy punched the Agent sending him careering back into the wall as Aqualad tackled the Agent to his right. A group of agents were guarding a choke point in the corridor before the elevator the team needed. Superboy ran forwards as bullets bounced off his chest protecting Aqualad who ran behind him readying his water-bearers, Sam and Tucker where using their built-in Fenton rays which rose from the forearms of their jumpsuits to provide covering fire. Artemis let loose an arrow which exploded in-front of the agents creating a smokescreen for Superboy as he barrelled into their ranks. Aqualad stuck with his water-bearers formed into dual maces knocking out the agents in-front and stepping over their fallen bodies to reach the others behind, an agent tried jumping him from the side only to be hit with a green beam and pushed back. An arrow took another Agent in the thigh, the man dropped to the ground screaming in pain, a bird-a-rang hit an agent in his wrist causing him to drop his gun. Another flurry of punches finished off the rest of the guards and ended the screaming of those injured.

"Whoo good work team" called Kid Flash

"How come you didn't help?" Tucker asked

"The corridors too narrow, I couldn't build up enough speed" he explained "time to see if that card of yours works"

Tucker walked forwards followed by the rest of the team, stepping over the fallen Agents he reached the elevator swiping the card in the reader the doors slid open and the whole team squeezed inside. "Well this is cosy" Kid Flash commented earning a slap to the back of his head from Artemis "hey!"

"This is not the time for jokes" Robin muttered angrily, Kid Flash sighed and looked down at his boots. The doors slid shut as Jazz who was closest pressed the button for the lowest floor. The group stood in silence or unnecessarily checked their equipment as the elevator descended, spines were straightened and muscles tightened in anticipation as the elevator approached the bottom floor. The doors opened to reveal another long white corridor studded with doors.

The door at the far end of the corridor was a dark green in colour "That's ectoranium" called Jazz forgetting to use the psychic link "It's used to contain ghosts, Da...Phantom is probably in there" she said almost slipping on the name. The team ran towards the door, Tucker pulled out his hacking equipment to open the door but Superboy who was quickly loosing patience simple strode forwards and tore the door off its hinges. The group peered in to find a small white cell completely void of an occupant. Miss Martian put her fingers to her temples as her eyes turned green, _'he's still here I can sense him, lets search each of these rooms'_ she thought to the team.

 _'Stay together we don't want to get separated down here'_ Aqualad ordered. They marched over to the nearest door and walked into the room, it appeared to be some sort of lab with cabinets filled with bottles and work surfaces covered in experiments, paperwork and computers. Walking out they tried the next door to find what looked like an operating theatre, the room looked as though it had recently been scrubbed clean but one look at the instruments laid out on their metal trays was enough to send a shiver running through the team. Tucker turned green and rushed out of the room as fast as he could.

The third room was almost bare in comparison, with a large metal chair in the centre and one wall being strangely made up of tinted glass. Miss Martian turned to the wall and gasped _'he's in there'_ she shouted through the link, lifting her arms her eyes turned green again as she blasted the glass causing it to shatter into a million pieces and come crashing down.

The room beyond was dark with the corners concealed in shadows, the team stepped cautiously into the room fanning out as they did. The room was size of the Casper high gym with a high ceiling and a concrete floor, the walls consisted of wooden panels which held what looked like targets, several of which held scorch marks. A figure stood in the centre of the room facing away from them, a figure with shaggy white hair. "DANNY!" shouted Sam as she started to run forwards only to be pulled back as Robin grabbed her arm, "what are you doing! LET ME GO!" she yelled at the boy wonder.

"Something's not right" he said and nodded towards where Phantom was standing, he hadn't reacted in the slightest to his name being called. As the team approached they could see that Phantom was not dressed in his usual black and white jumpsuit but instead wore a much bulkier black combat suit covered in splashes of red. Laughter crackled out at them from speakers placed high up on the walls.

"I'm glad you could join us" a mysterious voice taunted them "you did find our base rather sooner than I was expecting, I was hoping for a little more time to perfect the interface but I'm sure it's powerful enough now to deal with the children of the League. In-fact this is the perfect test before I send it after your elders."

"Who are you?" shouted Kid Flash, this did not receive a response. The lights in the hall stated to flicker on almost blinding the team with their brightness.

"Agent P, activate" called the voice again, Phantom twitched and then slowly turned to face the team. They all gasped as they took in Phantoms appearance, the combat suit he was wearing was ragged and torn in places covered in streaks of soot and blood and full of bullet holes but the thing which drew the teams attention the most were Phantom's eyes, they were red. The room shook gently and spirals of dust drifted lazily down from the ceiling, "it would seem our friends outside are becoming rowdy, I have to attend to this. Agent P kill them all, confirm command"

"Command confirmed" said Phantom with the echo in his voice disturbing the team more than usual. Phantom smiled revealing a set of unusually sharp teeth he charged forwards landing a punch to Superboy's chest sending him flying into the far wall. Artemis reacted by firing an explosive arrow at Phantom's feet causing him to be blasted back only to get up and fly at them.

 _'Aqualad what do we do?'_ asked Miss Martian in distress, Aqaulad surveyed the scene for a moment as Tucker stepped forwards and started shooting green beams at Phantom.

 _'Team, hear me now, Phantom is our friend and ally but today we must stop him. We will attempt to incapacitate and subdue, do not attempt to harm him if possible'_ Aqualad said with conviction _'we must find a way to get through to him and remind him of who he is'_

Phantom turned intangible and sank through the floor, coming up behind tucker he punched the boy in the back of the head making him drop to the floor unconscious. Miss Martian blasted Phantom backwards before he could deliver a killing blow to the technogeek, Superboy then sprang forwards to punch Phantom only to pass right through him as the ghost boy turned intangible. Phantom then grabbed Superboy's arm before he could regain his balance and spun him around flinging the Kriptonian into Aqualad who was running at the pair with water bearers drawn. Both of them went crashing to he ground, Phantom fired an ectoblast at them only for it to be intercepted by one of Robin's throwing rings.

An arrow hit Phantom in the chest enveloping him in expanding foam, the foam started to glow green and then exploded sending molten, burning pieces to be scattered throughout the room. Phantom used the momentary distraction to fly at Artemis as she readied another arrow only to be tackled out of the air by Robin who landed a punch to Phantom's jaw. Robin rolled out of the way allowing Sam to get a shot to Phantom's right leg. Phantom tried to go intangible and sink through the floor again only to be blasted by Miss Martian and thrown across the room. Phantom lay unmoving for a moment and Jazz approached cautiously. "Phantom … Danny, please remember who we are. Remember who you are. You're our friend, my brother come back to us please" she pleaded. Phantom looked up at her and his eyes flashed green briefly before returning to Red. He smirked showing off his new fangs again before he leapt up and delivered a punch to Jazz's chest. Her breastplate inside the jumpsuit dented inwards accompanied by the audible sound of breaking ribs as she was flung across the room to crash into the opposite wall and then crumple to the ground.

The team reacted quickly moving to attack Phantom again as Sam ran towards Jazz, she knelt down and put a hand to the older girls throat sighing with relief when she felt a pulse. Kid Flash ran at full speed towards Phantom delivering a kick to backs of his knees and the coming around for another pass dissolving into a whirlwind of punches and kicks always too fast for Phantom to retaliate. Phantom let loose a unidirectional ectoblast knocking KF back only for Aqualad to hit him with his water-bearers in the shape of a hammer. Phantom was pushed backwards where Superboy was waiting to deliver a punch to the back of his head. Phantom launched himself into the air where he was met with arrows and exploding disks making him weave and dodge unable to get close to anyone.

Kid flash ran up a wall and launched himself into the air to collide with the ghost boy and bring him back to the ground. Phantom let loose an ectoblast catching KF in the side and causing him to yelp in pain as the smell of burnt flesh filled the room. As Phantom landed he turned and attacked Robin who flipped and twisted to dodge the blows.

Sam stood and watched from across the room as Phantom fought the young heroes and thought of the boy she knew, about his smile and the way he would joke about fighting ghosts and always looked out for everyone else. A moment came back to her with perfect clarity, a couple of months ago it had been just the two of them in her room listening to some music not saying anything to each other and just enjoying being there. She wanted her Danny back and so being moved by the memory she started to sing, sharing the memory with everyone in the link hoping they would understand.

" **Oh, can you tell me, can you tell me exactly how it works?"** she began to sing,

 _'Do you really think this will work?'_ asked Superboy

 _'It's worth a try, right?'_ replied Artemis

" **And who is that I see, I see inside of me?"** Robin sang joining Sam's voice as he flipped over an ectoblast.

" **And how am I supposed to get by, within, this broken world"** Kid flash started joining in the song as he tried to deliver a few more punches to the ghost boy before moving out of the way for Miss Martian to send another telekinetic blast their way.

" **I hear you laugh at me but I don't see a thing"** both Miss Martian and Artemis started to sing. Phantom punched Artemis when she got to close knocking the girl back, Superboy stepped into the gap before Phantom could deliver any more hits and punched the ghost boy in the face.

" **Within my head I am so damaged, I hold my breath and I freeze"** Sam sang pouring everything she had into the song and urging the others to keep singing. Their efforts where rewarded as the perpetual smirk dropped from Phantom's face as his eyes flashed green briefly before he went on the attack again.

" **I'm breakable, unbreakable, I'm shakeable, unshakeable, I found you then I shook inside"** Robin sang feeling the tide beginning to turn as Phantoms attacks became more erratic and lost their power.

" **And in this twisted world I can now feel myself, I'm fading away falling under your spell"** The whole team sang putting their heart and soul into it as Phantom's eyes started to flicker rapidly between red and green. Phantom hesitated allowing Superboy and Aqualad to get several hits in.

" **Don't look for me 'cause I am too far gone"** Phantom delivered a kick to Robin's leg causing the boy wonder to come crashing to the ground, Artemis fired an exploding arrow at the ghost boy forcing him away from Robin before he could do anything more. Robin jumped to his feet as the team continued singing to Phantom who was now backing away from the team looking confused as his eyes where changing back and forth more rapidly now.

" **I don't wish to hurt those who I call my friends, I'm stuck within a nightmare someone else imagined"** Phantom stated to shake and tears started to gather in his eyes as their colour remained green.

" **I won't forget, I'll remember who I am"** The team sang the last line of the song. Phantom turned to look Robin in the eyes,

"Help … me" Danny whispered.

Robin nodded and delivered a final blow to the boy's temple knocking him unconscious.

* * *

 **A/N: So no one guessed the riddle from the previous chapter I hope it makes sense now at least. Writing that was exhausting I hope you liked it, the song is Unravel from Tokyo Ghoul as sung by NateWantsToBattle available on youtube I highly recommend you listen to it whilst reading that last bit. :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Some rather mixed revies on the song in the last chapter but thats fine I wont be doing that again it's just because that song fit the situation so well I thought I would try it. anyway I hope you enjoy reading this chapter**

Chapter 13

Betws-y-coed was burning. Black columns of smoke rose from the land ahead as superman flew on to his destination. With his enhanced hearing he picked up the crackle of gunshots and the deep booms of artillery. He accelerated, drawing near to the village he watched as British soldiers ducked around corners and sheltered behind broken walls as they were fired upon from above by GIW agents with jet packs. Energy blasts and bullets filled the air, the last of the tanks still duelled as they roved across the landscape. The burning carcasses of their brethren littered the area.

Superman flew towards one of the GIW tanks, deciding to deal with the biggest threat first, he landed on top and tore off the turret to get to the men inside. An energy blast hit his shoulder just as he was reaching down, the blast would have been enough to vaporise a normal man. Superman lost his balance and slipped, using his flight to catch himself. He tuned to look at the GIW tank that had shot at him just in time to see it explode as a depleted uranium shell from the last remaining British tank punctured its armour and tore through the energy cells inside. The explosion picked up the tank superman had just been standing on and threw it out of the field and into the foundations of the bridge at the centre of the village causing it to collapse. The exploding tank was reduced to shrapnel which stuck Superman's skin like hot hail, the agents in the air where shredded and crashed to the ground as their jet packs were torn open.

The whole battle field was silent for a moment before the shooting started again, neither side willing to give up. Superman ran through the village trying to catch as many of the GIW as possible and put an end to the fighting. Just as superman was passing a burning building an agent stepped out of the front door, the man's white suit was stained with soot. Superman stopped to catch the man when a look of surprise and pain crossed the man's face, he looked down to see the tip of a knife protruding from the man's chest. Scarlet started to paint white around the shining silver tip as the agent's eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground. Superman has seen death many times in his career but it never failed to shock him.

Standing in the agent's place and holding a bloodied kitchen knife in both hands was an elderly woman, she was shaking, her clothes were burnt and her hair singed. Tears made tacks through the soot on her face. "He … He killed my son" she gasped in a thick Welsh accent, her voice shaking with grief "why would he do that? Why did he make me do this?" Superman had no words.

Behind him he heard the Batwing land in the centre of the village, the sounds of battle where already fading away, the sound of guns where falling silent.

* * *

Robin just finished checking Danny for injuries and turned to check on Jazz when Aqualad spoke up "how is everyone?" He asked.

"I'll live" said Kid Flash who was leaning against a wall as Artemis bound the large bleeding burn on his side.

"I'm good" said Superboy as he helped miss Martian to her feet, she was rubbing her head and groaning in pain.

"A little battered and bruised but I'll be ok" she grimaced "he put up quite a fight didn't he?"

"That he did" Sam stated quietly from where she was checking on tucker, "come on Tucker wake up already it's time to go" she said gently tapping the boy on the cheeks to make him come around. Truckers eyes started to flicker open, he rubbed the back of his head and groaned sitting up to look around the room.

"Did we do it?" He asked with a slight slur to his voice.

"Yes we did tuck, how are you feeling?" Sam asked,

"Dizzy, sore and nauseous" he replied.

"You probably have a concussion," Aqualad said walking over to the teen "we will need to get you medical attention as soon as we can"

"Yea I think a few of us are going to need a doctor" Kid Flash said sarcastically "hey rob how's it going?"

"Jazz will be ok for now but I think she has a few cracked ribs and maybe a concussion as well but her breathing and heart rate are ok. Phantom will be out for a while I dosed him with some strong sedatives until we can get him to a doctor who can find out what the GIW have done to him" he explained.

"Sedatives don't work very well on Phantom he can usually heal from their effects pretty quickly" Sam said,

"True but these sedatives are laced with ectoplasm so they can affect him" Robin said.

"OK, but rob how are you doing, you got a few hits from Phantom there" Kid asked with concern.

"Just a few bruises, I'll be OK" Robin told the team. Kid Flash raised an eyebrow in disbelief but he didn't say anything.

"OK team listen we have three injured people we have to carry out of here as well as support each other" Aqualad started.

"I'll carry lance, he's the heaviest" Superboy offered,

"Good, Sam you help tucker, Artemis you've got kid Flash" Aqualad continued giving orders, "I will carry Jazz and Miss Marian will get Phantom". Robin opened his mouth to protest but Aqualad silenced him with a raised hand "Despite what you say we can all see you walking with a limp so you cannot carry Phantom, plus Miss Martian can use her telekinesis and bind his limbs with it so should he wake up he will not be able to move." Aqualad explained. Robin closed his mouth but glowered at the Atlantean. The team moved to collect their respective charges and made their way to the floor above where they had left Lance.

* * *

The Justice League worked quickly to put out the remaining fires in the village, Aquaman, Green lantern and The Flash stayed in the village to assist the army with rescuing injured soldiers and others trapped in buildings as well as capturing any remaining GIW Agents. Batman, Superman and Black canary left the village behind and climbed the hill to the main entrance to the GIW complex.

The steel doors where battered and pitted with bullet marks but they still held firm. Superman walked up and delivered a punch straight to the centre of the doors creating a hole, he then grabbed both sides of the hole and pulled tearing the doors off their hinges and throwing them down behind him. Batman stepped smartly out of the way as the doors came crashing down in the spot he was just standing, he then glared at the back of Superman's head. Black canary rolled her eyes and smirked at the pair.

They stepped inside to be confronted by two GIW agents, Batman threw a batarang knocking their weapons out of their hands before they even had a chance to raise them. A Canary Cry threw them into the opposite wall knocking them out as superman forced open another door leading to the inner white tunnels of the GIW base. Batman spied a computer terminal and headed for it plugging in and downloading a map of the base.

"So, where do we go?" Black canary asked,

"Straight down, the base has internal sensors to monitor ghosts. There is only one signal moving I'm betting that's the team" Batman explained.

"Are you sure?" Superman asked,

"As sure as I can be, it seems as though most of the agents have been taken out but we may get token resistance, we need to clear a path for the team." Batman looked around the room for any other clues as his computer started downloading everything on the GIW servers and uploading it to the watchtower and Batcave. "Ok let's get moving" the caped crusader ordered leading the way as they ventured deeper into the base.

* * *

The team made it two levels up when they ran into trouble, Robin was leading the way with Miss Martian and Phantom in the middle and Aqualad bringing up the rear with Jazz. Just as Phantom passed through a door that Robin has disabled on the way down an alarm went off, large green doors dropped from the ceiling at either ends of the corridor sealing them off and large ecto-gun turrets appeared at the corners of the room and started firing at the unconscious Phantom. Miss Martian warded off the first blasts with her telekinesis but they were coming faster than she could counter and several struck phantom creating burns on his skin and clothing and making him twitch with pain. Superboy dropped Lance unceremoniously to the ground and ran to tackle the closest turret tearing the weapon from its mount he then ran for the next one. Kid Flash took out another one and an arrow from Artemis destroyed the final turret.

Robin ran over to Phantom to check his new injuries,

"Sam help me over to that panel" Tucker said gesturing to the small computer panel next to the door.

"OK" Sam said helping the boy who was rather unsteady on his feet shuffle over to the computer. Tucker squinted at the screen and then put a hand over one eye so he could concentrate properly on trying to hack the wall panel. "How's Phantom?" Sam asked Robin as he got some bandages out of his belt and was smearing some kind of clear gel on the burns.

"The burns are superficial; he should be able to heal these really quickly" he responded in a worried voice.

"Perhaps his other injuries have weakened his healing abilities" Aqualad suggested,

"Yea maybe" Robin said not sounding too sure. Superboy retuned to where he had dropped Lance with a slightly apologetic expression and checked the man over to make sure he had not added to his injuries.

"How long to get out of here?" Superboy shouted at Tucker "Robin would already have the doors open"

"I don't think these doors are supposed to open" Tucker said, everyone looked at him astonished "When Phantom passed that doorway his presence triggered an automatic response, the base thought a Ghost was escaping and went into lockdown. These doors are made of ectoranium they were suspended in the ceiling by bolts, the bolts released and they dropped into place, the only way to open them is from the other side with a winch" Tucker explained.

"Time for muscles to go to work then?" Artemis asked, Superboy just nodded walking up to the door and punched the surface creating only a small dent. He looked at the metal in surprise expecting it to have a nice fist shaped hole in it.

"What's wrong?" Miss Martian asked from where she stood over Phantom's floating body.

"This metal, it's very hard" Superboy explained,

"Perhaps if we work together?" Aqualad said gently lowering Jazz to the floor and then moving forwards pulling out his water bearers he formed them into hammers and started to pound on the door as Superboy resumed punching. After ten minutes the pair had to stop, gasping for air, the door now had several large dents in the surface but they were no closer to getting through.

"We have to hurry" said Robin as he pushed another needle into Phantom's arm "I can't keep giving him these sedatives they were supposed to be emergency only and I'm running out. Plus, Jazz's breathing is becoming laboured If she's not seen to soon she could end up with a punctured lung"

"We shall try again" Aqualad gasped,

"Can't you use your explosive arrows?" Sam asked Artemis.

"In such an enclosed space we would all get hit by the blast" Artemis explained,

"Wait, listen" Kid Flash said. They all stopped and strained their ears, Superboy who had the best hearing spoke up first.

"It sounds like screaming"

"Sounds like whistling to me" Tucker said. A large crack suddenly appeared in the metal starting in the centre of the dent they had made and moving towards the ceiling. Aqualad who suddenly realised what was happening shouted,

"Back, move back away from the door!" Everyone quickly complied as the cracks started to multiply across the green metal. The team huddled close to the other side of the tunnel and watched as the cracks got larger and pieces of the door started to fall out until with a shocking suddenness the centre of the door gave way and exploded inwards. The team shielded their faces from the rubble and then looked up, through the hole stepped Black Canary, Batman and Superman.

"You kids are in so much trouble" Canary said.

* * *

Dr Lloydell walked out of the operating theatre and down the corridor to the men's toilets. He stood at the sinks and removed his surgical mask and hat, splashing his face with cold water. He'd accepted this job as senior doctor at the watchtower for many reasons, the chance to work with aliens and superheroes, to learn about physiologies vastly different from ordinary humans, to be able to say he helped the heroes who save the world on a daily basis. However, one of the reasons he never told anyone was that he hated working with children. Not that he hated children, quite the opposite he couldn't stand to see them in pain and he never thought he would have to operate on one again after coming to the watchtower.

The doctor cleared his throat and wiped his eyes, he had to pull himself together, he had to talk to Batman and he couldn't do that whilst getting all emotional. After operating on Phantom and seeing what had been done to him he wasn't just upset for the boy he was furious at the people who had done this to him. These experiments had obviously needed the expertise of a skilled surgeon and doctor, someone who had broken their oath 'do no harm' and Lloydell felt betrayed by this unknown person. The doctor splashed his face again and took some deep breaths running through some calming exercises, he needed to focus and be able to present the facts without bias to the caped crusader. He wiped his face with a paper towel and threw his used surgical gown in the biohazard waste before heading out and grabbing his clipboard on his way to the small waiting room.

He entered the room to find a bunch of bizarrely dressed individuals sitting in the plastic chairs, many had newly dressed bandages. Kid Flash was sat in a wheelchair hooked up to an IV with a dreamy look on his face from the pain killers. Robin stood up as he walked into the room and Batman strode forwards to meet him. "How's he doing doc?" Artemis asked,

"We've done what we can for him for now, he will need further surgeries and treatment in the future but we can't tax his body much more yet. Does he have any family? If so I need to talk to them privately" the doctor explained.

"You can talk to me Doctor" Batman said,

"Very well, this way please" the doctor said as he led Batman into his office, Robin followed along behind. The doctor was about to say something to the boy but Batman got there first.

"Robin needs to hear this too"

"OK" Lloydell said uncertainly as he took a seat behind his desk and flipped through Phantom's file. "Phantom has had several devices implanted throughout his body, I believe these where designed to boost his performance in certain areas and to maintain control over the boy"

"They operated on him?" Robin asked, his voice filled with some emotion the doctor couldn't identify.

"Yes they did, we have removed what we can but I'm uncomfortable touching some of them until I know what they do, we could end up doing more harm than good." The doctor explained "The one that is causing us the most worries is the one implanted into the base of his skull, it has filaments that run into his brain, we have removed its power source so it's no longer active but we can't remove it without knowing how it was implanted. I'll be reading through the medical notes you brought back from the GIW to see what more we can do for him."

"Thank you for helping him Doctor, now I suggest you get some sleep you have been operating for eight hours and look exhausted" Batman told the doctor. The doctor smiled gently,

"I'm afraid I still have a lot of work to do before I retire for the day but thank you for the thought" Lloydell commented "one more thing, it seems the concentration of ectoplasm in Phantoms blood is much higher than in the samples you gathered from before he was taken. It's possible that's the reason for the changes in his appearance and why he's not changing back into his human half"

"Can I see him?" Robin asked,

"Of course, he's just been moved to post-op so just make sure to stay out of the nurse's way."

Robin nodded and left the room as Batman continued his discussion with the doctor, he headed down the corridor. The medical section of the watchtower was quite large and was built to be able to handle full scale emergencies if necessary with all the best modern equipment for treating supers. Robin quickly found the room labelled post-op and slipped inside, the room was quite large with a single bed inside surrounded by beeping machines. The nurse in the room turned and smiled at him sadly, she finished writing some of the readings from the machines in her notes and then left the room.

Dick looked down at his brother, some of his hair had been shaved off and a row of neat stiches ran from the nape of his neck to his right ear. A medical gown covered the rest of his body with the bed sheets pulled up to his navel, wires sprouted from the gown at his throat and others snaked their way around his arms. The steady beeping of the machines the only indicator that the beds occupant was still living. Dick dragged a chair up to the side of Danny's bed and took hold of his brother's hand. "I'm sorry I wasn't quick enough to save you little brother" Dick said quietly. Dick leant over his brother's prone form "I'm so sorry …" his voice choked off as for the first time since Danny had gone missing Dick allowed himself to cry.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Danny's eyes flickered slowly open allowing him to stare blearily at the ceiling. He groaned quietly, his whole body felt like one big bruise, his limbs where stiff and aching. Feeling a pressure on his arm he looked over and saw Robin sat in a chair to the side of his bed with his head resting on Danny's arm, fast asleep. Robin was gripping his hand tightly, Danny smiled and felt tears come to his eyes until he noticed that Dick was drooling on his arm.

"Eugh, gross!" He exclaimed in a croaky voice, he shook his hand out of Dick's grip and wiped his arm on the sheets. Robin grunted in his sleep but did not wake. Movement in the corner of the room made Danny look up, Kid Flash stood up from the chair he had obviously just been sleeping in and approached the bed.

"Hey Danny, how you feeling?" He asked, Danny just rolled his eyes at the speedster "sorry standard question" KF said keeping his voice down. Danny glanced around the rest of the room, Superboy and Miss Martian where sat in chairs in another corner both sleeping, with Miss Martians head on Superboy's shoulder. Artemis was lying on an empty bed next to his. Danny took all this in quickly before turning back to Kid Flash,

"You called me Danny"

"Yea, don't worry I won't tell anyone, but well I already know Rob's secret ID so he told me yours" KF explained quietly trying not to wake the others. Danny rubbed at his eyes and looked over KF again, seeing the bags under his eyes and the bandages wound around his torso.

"I hurt you" Danny stated, his eyes started to fill with tears again as he remembered the fight "I'm sorry" he said, his voice cracking over the word.

"Hey man, it's OK you weren't in control" KF said putting a hand on Danny's shoulder as Danny started to cry silently. "Erm, it's OK, no need to cry over me … Erm" KF stuttered having no idea how to comfort the boy. The speedster leaned over and flicked Robin on the forehead, the boy wonder awoke with a grunt. He wiped at his face and then seeing that Danny was awake and crying he jumped up and pulled his brother into a hug. Danny's crying turned into all out sobs as he gripped the back of Robin's suit. The others began to wake from the noise, they all watched the pair silently as Danny began to bawl his eyes out, each of them having to choke back on their own grief.

Danny's cries eventually started to fade and the exhausted boy's grip loosened, Robin lowered him back to the bed, Danny still had a painful death grip on Robin's arm that Robin pretended not to notice. "I'm sorry guys, I never wanted to hurt you" Danny mumbled,

"Phantom you have nothing to apologise for" Miss Martian stated,

"We got you now, you're safe" Artemis supplied.

"They won't ever get to you again" Superboy said aggressively,

"Get some sleep, we'll still be here when you wake up" Robin promised,

"You promise?" Danny said nervously,

"Of course" Robin replied, Danny needed no further encouragement and his eyes fluttered shut, his grip on Robin's arm slackened as the ghost boy fell asleep.

* * *

Vlad sat at as his desk tapping his fingers angrily against the dark varnished wood as he watched to news, "Michelle Forester reporting for BBC News, as you can see the village is calm now; the fires have been quenched and the injured evacuated, leaving Betws-y-Coed as a ghost town. The military have set up a temporary camp not far from the village where they are carrying out an investigation into the secret GIW base that has been tunnelled into the hill. The events that took place here two days ago have shook the world, the UN has released a statement condemning the actions of the GIW and ruling them as a terrorist organisation. The Justice league has been tasked with discovering and closing down any more bases that have been discovered. The President of the US has been in London for the past few days co-ordinating with the British Government in order to get the GIW shut down. We now go live to Llandudno where the evacuees are wondering what now for their village?"

Vlad shut the TV off and sighed leaning back in his chair and rubbing at his eyes, he had sunk millions into that organisation and got very little return. He still had all the data from the experiments that went on there and it would be very useful to the light but he was hoping to come out of this with the GIW intact, his own private army. It had sounded good at the time. He was also regretting the loss of Phantom, no doubt the Justice league had him now and would get to work unravelling all the progress Vlad had made with him.

It was no matter, his new partnerships with the light where making him more money than he lost on the GIW and he had other ways of getting what he wanted, Daniel was always far too rebellious anyway. Vlad looked back at his desk and smirked opening the file and reading the contents, phase two was already underway.

* * *

Danny woke again to find the room still full of his team mates, only this time Superboy had been replaced with Aqualad. "Oh you're awake" Kid flash said, Aqualad approached the bed

"How are you doing my friend?" He asked the ghost boy,

"A bit better, still feel like I was hit by a train" Danny groaned, everyone chuckled a little at that. "Where did Superboy go?"

"He had to go let out his anger on something" Robin explained,

"Did Kid Flash annoy him again?"

"Hey! I'm stood right here" Kid flash said with a pout, and earning another round of laughter. That's when Danny stomach made itself known with a loud grumble.

"I'll go get you something to eat" said Miss Martian as she slipped out of the room,

"So, erm … what happened after, you know, we fought?" Danny asked nervously whilst looking down at his hands,

"Are you sure you want to talk about this now?" Robin asked gently,

"Yea I...I wanna know, What happened to Jazz, Sam and Tucker?" Danny said suddenly looking around the room in panic, "Shouldn't they be here?" Aqualad and Robin looked at each other before choosing their words carefully.

"Phantom, you are at the watchtower in a facility designed to deal with the unique physiologies associated with supers, Batman thought it best you were treated here. Jazz, Sam and Tucker are fine, Batman had them sent to a public hospital in Wales after the … event. They have since returned home, under protest I might add" Aqualad said with a slight smirk. "They agreed to cover for you with your parents for the time being", Danny breathed out a sigh of relief.

"They're ok then?" he asked

"A little battered but yea they're fine, Batman was actually quite impressed with the trio, although he tried not to show it" Robin chimed in.

"As for the rest, the GIW have been destroyed, the Justice league are currently on multiple missions across the globe to discover, expose and shut down any of their bases" Aqualad explained.

"They're not being gentle about it either, I think the GIW taking one of ours has really gotten them angry" Artemis said from her chair across the room where she was reading a newspaper.

"The anti-ecto act has been suspended by the UN whist they conduct a full review, Batman is helping them with that providing evidence that ghosts are sentient beings with just as much right to exist as the rest of us" Robin said,

"The ghosts who were discovered in the GIW complex and others around the world are being returned to the Ghost Zone so that they can heal from their injuries." Aqualad continued.

"What about me?" Danny asked, not sure if he wanted to hear this "what did they do to me?" Aqualad and Robin looked at each other again,

"Perhaps we should wait for the doctor, he will be able to explain things better" Aqualad said.

"Oh OK" said timidly looking down at his hands.

"Don't worry you'll be fine, back on your feet and taking down bad guys in no time" Artemis said "If I was you I'd be looking forwards to a bit of misplaced aggression"

Danny smiled at that. Miss Martian then came back with a plastic tray piled high with food, Danny's eyes widened as he took the tray and dug in, shovelling the food into his mouth for hospital food he had never tasted anything so good. Everyone in the room stared at the ghost boy with a mixture of surprise and disgust, Robin took a subtle side step to avoid a flying rib bone. Dany's newly sharp teeth and fangs where proving very effective in dismantling the huge pile of food, "You might want to pace yourself" Artemis said getting up and trying to get him to slow down "You'll get a bad stomach" she put her hand on Danny's hand to stop him. Danny's eyes suddenly flashed red and he growled at the girl, everyone instinctually took a step back hands going for weapons.

Danny's eyes widened as they went back to green, he dropped the fork and pushed the food away from himself with too much force sending the half-eaten food to splatter against the wall. He shuffled back and looked around the room "I … I'm sorry" he apologised to Artemis.

"It's OK Phantom" said Robin reaching out a hand to put on Danny's shoulder,

"No don't touch me!" Danny shouted shying away from Robin's touch "I…I don't want to hurt you". Robin pulled back his hand with worry clear on his face,

"You won't, I trust you" Robin said quietly

"I don't trust me" Danny said pulling the sheets over his head "I'd like to be alone now please"

"Phantom …" Miss Martian said quietly her voice full of empathy

"Very well, we shall return to see you later" Aqualad said as he herded the others out of the room.

As the door closed behind them Danny curled up under the sheets and let his tears flow "they made me …" he sobbed "into a monster"

* * *

Maddie was sat at the kitchen table, a cold half-drunk cup of coffee rested on the surface near her elbow as she stared at the screen of her laptop. The latest batch of her seeker software was currently hacking its way into police and hospital records all over the country to try and find out what happened to her boy. Maddies eyes slipped shut for a second before she shook herself awake again, she had to keep looking but as each day passed another piece of her heart broke away and she was starting to wonder if she should add mortuaries to the hacking software list. Jack was out again in the RV searching ever back street and park in Amity and beyond looking for their boy. She had barely spoken five words to him in the past week as they drifted through life, putting everything on hold as they searched. Maddie looked over at the corner where the stack of unopened bills and letters where, the fridge was starting to smell and the trash was filled with takeaway wrappers. Jack was looking thinner these days from missing so many meals and so much sleep, tears started leaking out of Maddie's eyes as she took in the deteriorating state of the house and considered her family.

The door slammed open against the wall making her jump, she quickly wiped at her eyes to see Jazz, Sam and Tucker in the doorway. Jazz was in a wheel chair, "What is going on, Jazz what happened" Maddie said getting up and moving over to examine her daughter with a twinge of guilt as she realised that she hadn't noticed that Jazz was gone until now.

"We found him" Jazz croaked,

"What?" Maddie said in shock as her heart stopped briefly "Where is he" she almost shouted grabbing Jazzes' shoulders and shaking the girl with a little too much force causing her to flinch and hiss in pain. Maddie relaxed her grip but stared into Jazzes' eyes intently,

"He's in Gotham, Batman helped us find him, he's been taken to a special hospital. He'll be ok but he's not the same" Jazz said biting her lip she didn't want to reveal her brothers secret just yet, unfortunately jazz was very bad at lying and Maddie knew it. Maddie's eyes narrowed,

"Don't lie to me jazz, not about this" Maddie said her voice cracking as her grief came to the surface.

"I'm sorry mum I can't" Jazz said, Maddie turned to look at the other two only to see them both avoiding her gaze.

"Right" said Maddie straightening up and feeling her anger rising "I'll call your father and then we'll head to Gotham to find out what you're not telling me"

* * *

 **Hi guys, sorry for the long wait ive been super busy lately. I hope you enjoyed the chapter just a short one this time, and thank you to everyone who has followed and faved this story I hope you continue reading.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15,

Red Tornado walked into the main room of the watchtower and stopped in surprise. Batman was stood looking out of the great window with the blue green-sphere of Earth shining just outside. Whilst it wasn't unusual to see Batman brooding, Red Tornado had never seen him doing it here. Walking up behind the caped crusader the android decided to intrude,

"something on your mind?" he asked, his simulated voice echoing around the large chamber.

"It has been two weeks and we still haven't found out who the mastermind behind the whole thing was" Batman grumbled

"I thought it was believed to be the work of Vlad Masters" Tornado answered, knowing precisely what the Batman was talking about. For the past two weeks, the Justice Leagues entire focus had been on the GIW, in total they had captured 27 bases all over the globe and put thousands of people in prison. It had been a brutal campaign, many of the leaguers had taken an attack on one of their own personally and the fact that Phantom was a child seemed to have positively enraged several of them. It had been up to Tornado and others to reign in the destructive tendencies of several of the leaguers.

Batman had stayed out of the fighting, preferring instead to chase down leads, expose new bases and try to undermine the command structure of the GIW. Many of the league thought that this was just him using his best talents to help, however Batman knew that if he joined in the fighting he may not have been able to hold himself back.

"We only have one piece of circumstantial evidence on Masters, that Phantom was taken from his mansion, it's not enough to accuse him of anything." Batman huffed in frustration "we've only managed to capture a handful of the GIW's top agents, and most of them either suicided of just won't talk. I'm betting that the rest of them have gone to ground meaning we may never find them!"

"Then there is nothing more to be done for the moment" Red Tornado stated with finality

"I would have to agree," Batman said with reluctance "it's time for the league to reduce our focus on the GIW and get back to normal operations. The GIW is no longer a global threat, if anything of the organisation still exists it will be up to local law enforcement to deal with it now"

* * *

Danny was looking at himself in the bathroom mirror, two weeks of operations, medications and good food, meant he was starting to feel like his old self again. He pulled down his lower lip showing his newly sharp teeth and elongated canines, the took some getting used to. For the first week, he kept biting his tongue and the inside of his cheek because of them, and it really hurt! However he secretly liked how they looked, they made him appear more dangerous. He also found out they are much harder than before, which he only discovered after he accidentally bit the head off a fork whilst eating. His eyes had changed too, they now glowed all the time and he had amazing night vision with everything painted in green.

His chest and his head still ached from the operations that had been performed on him in the last couple of weeks. Danny knew he would be left with some pretty bad scars but the doctors had finally managed to remove the last of the GIW devices from his body. The proportion of ectoplasm in Danny's blood was still higher than it should be and was not something the doctors could fix. This had left Danny with two main side effects, first of all, he was now more ghost than human. All of his ghost abilities were now more powerful than they were before, not by much but enough that his accelerated healing meant he didn't die in that GIW base from the experiments they performed on him.

The second side effect was more worrying, it now took more effort to turn from ghost to human rather than vice versa. This meant that Danny now spent most of his time in ghost form, this was something that the others were worrying about. Danny just felt more comfortable and safer as a ghost, the first time he turned human was a shock. He suddenly felt so weak and powerless, his injuries hurt so much more. He's not sure what happened after the original shock he just remembers lots of lights and noise, Robin said that he had a panic attack and then fell unconscious.

Black Canary had taken over his counselling, she said he should spend more time as a human, that the trauma he had experienced was the cause of his feelings of weakness and it would get better with time and effort.

"OK here goes," Danny said to himself in the mirror. The familiar white rings washed over him leaving behind a black haired blue eyed teenager. Danny staggered slightly as he felt weak at the knees, he smiled lightly at his reflection revealing now blunt human teeth. A shadow moved along the wall behind Danny briefly taking on the semblance of a tall man with an evil grin. Danny closed his eyes tightly, this had been happening a lot in his human form, hallucinations, paranoia, panic attacks, the feeling of being watched.

"It's not real, they're all gone, I'm on a space station floating a thousand miles above Earth surrounded by some of the most powerful people in the world. They can't get me again" Danny repeated the mantra a few more times before opening his eyes again. He breathed a sigh of relief, there were no shadows or faceless men in white suits, just his sky blue painted bathroom. He didn't want a repeat of the other day, an hallucination had caused him to punch a nurse that was walking towards him down the corridor. He had broken her nose and only the sight of blood caused Danny to snap out of it, monsters after all, don't bleed.

Danny had felt so bad he apologised profusely and then spent the day following the poor nurse around and helping her with everything he could, even going to get her lunch from the cafeteria. He knew he was just irritating her and getting in the way but he just couldn't stop himself. Kid flash had thought it was hilarious and had started filming the whole thing for future blackmail. " Don't worry about it Phantom" Artemis had consoled him "It's probably just your ghost obsession with helping people, you haven't been able to for months so your just trying to get your fix" she explained.

Danny had only nodded in agreement, this explanation made him happy, he hadn't lost his obsession. No matter what the GIW did to him they couldn't destroy who he was, this lifted his spirits enormously and over the last few days he had been doing his best to get better so he could go home, he could see his family, and he could start to help people again.

* * *

 **Hey guys, I know it's been too long since I updated this story. I've been very busy the past few months had to deal with some drama. Hope you can forgive me and I hope you enjoyed this. I'll try to get another larger chapter up next week if I can.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16.

"I am Zaardon the soul reaper! Bow before me pitiful mortals!" screamed the overweight middle-aged man in what looked like a homemade cosplay outfit and wielding a katana as he strolled down the street threatening random passers-by. It was about 5 am with only the street lamps to illuminate the comical scene unfolding below.

"Oh man," said Danny quietly as he floated invisibly above the street "and I thought the box ghost was annoying" he proclaimed as the man below repeated his statement, shouting in the face of a young woman and demanding that she hand over her jewels. Danny facepalmed as he looked at the woman who seemed to be out for an early morning jog. "Dude" he called down finally making himself visible, "I seriously doubt that she has any jewels."

Danny swooped down and punched the man under his chin, knocking him out instantly. He turned and smiled at the young woman who just huffed at him, put her headphones back in and carried on with her jog. "You're welcome!" Danny shouted after her, a little annoyed that she didn't at least say thanks. A groan alerted Danny to the fact that 'Zaardon' was waking up, Danny quickly prised the sword from the man's grasp and threw it in the nearest bin.

"I am Zaardon!" the man exclaimed again, causing Danny to do another facepalm "you cannot keep me restrained for I am too powerful to be contained by moral means!"

"Dude just give it up, you got yourself a one-way ticket to the nearest looney bin," Danny said with a sigh, he waved his hands towards the man on the floor creating glowing green ecto-cuffs that materialised around the criminals wrists. "Ha!" Danny said with a smile "First time I've done that!"

'Zaardon' tugged at the cuffs experimentally and then looked back up at Danny to say something. His mouth opened then his eyes snapped to something just behind the teen, his mouth snapped shut. Frowning at the man Danny turned to look over his shoulder and stopped in shock. Batman and Robin were stood just behind Danny on the street, anger radiated out of the pair, Danny could almost feel it like a pressure in the air. Danny took a step backwards, almost tripping over 'Zaardon' in the process and fixed his eyes on the floor. He hadn't even heard them approaching, he mentally berated himself for not paying close enough attention to his surroundings.

Robin walked right up to Danny, and slapped him hard across the face. Danny felt his cheek smart as his head was forced to one side. He opened his eyes and looked at Robin. The boy wonder was seething with rage, he looked like he wanted to say something but a glance at the criminal on the floor, who seemed to be taking great interest in the exchange, made him shut his mouth and turn away.

Batman placed some metal cuffs around 'Zaardon's' wrists and chained him to the nearest lamp post. "Release the cuffs Phantom" he ordered, Danny waved his hand, reabsorbing the ectoplasm from the cuffs causing them to dissipate. Batman turned to look at Danny, even with the cowl Danny could see the angry and disappointed look on his face. "You will follow us if you attempt to deviate from the path we set or resist in any way I will cuff you and drag you with us if I have to. Is that understood!" Batman barked at the whitehaired teenager.

Danny looked at the floor again, tears pricking at his eyes. "I said is that understood!" Batman said again louder in a tone that brooked no argument.

"Yes," Danny said quietly, Batman nodded and took to the nearest rooftop, Robin followed behind and with a deep sigh, Danny floated after the dynamic duo.

* * *

The silence was deafening, Batman and Robin sat in the Batcave watching Danny as he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING?" Robin suddenly exploded making Danny jump and cringe back in fear. "How dare you go on a patrol on your own without telling anyone. You aren't fully recovered yet, despite your training in the gym recently, we know you're not up to full strength. You aren't even wearing anything remotely protective" Robin shouted gesturing to the black jeans and hoody that Danny was wearing "you didn't take your watch or any way you could contact anyone if you got into trouble. Do you have any idea what we all went through the past few months? This is precisely why we told you to stay at the mansion and train until you were fit enough to go on patrol or on missions again but no you just had to go and satisfy your compulsion to help people with no thought as to how it would affect us. It's not just irresponsible it's dangerous." Robin finished his rant and looked at Danny who was now shaking with rage.

Danny's eyes turned red "No I have no idea what you have gone through because I was the one in a lab being experimented on like … like a FUCKING LAB RAT! I…I needed to let off some steam I've stuck in this house and the watchtower for weeks and I'm SICK OF IT. I just wanted to get out, I was just going to stay invisible and do some exploring but then I saw that psycho and just couldn't let him get away with it, he could have hurt someone. I..I couldn't let that happen I..I'm NOT A MONSTER!"

Danny collapsed to the ground and started crying. Robin's face fell, Batman could tell he was still angry but didn't know what to do. Robin started pacing biting his lower lip and not looking at Danny. Batman turned to the crying figure on the floor and decided it was time for a little tough love. In a way he was quite proud of Danny's actions it showed that the boy could improvise in a situation and it showed that the boy he knew from before the GIW was still there but he couldn't let this little act of rebellion go unpunished because Robin was right it was dangerous and short-sighted of Danny to have done this.

"Stand up Danny," Batman said, Danny slowly climbed to his feet, his face red from fallen tears. "for disobeying the orders of a superior I am adding one week of suspension from duty to the end of your recovery period," Batman explained to a crestfallen looking teen. "As you feel that you are fit enough to be outside I am increasing your training regimen. With the exception of tomorrow, any time you are not sleeping, eating or meeting with Black Canary you will be training, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," Danny said quietly.

"Good, you are confined to your room for the rest of the day. Go" Batman ordered pointing at the stairs out of the Batcave. "Oh and Danny, just in case you feel like going for a wander again, I have erected an invisible Force shield around the manor to prevent you from leaving. It will work on both of your forms so don't get any ideas." Danny winced at the thought of coming into contact with that but continued walking out of the Batcave.

* * *

The atmosphere in the Fenton RV was oppressive, Jazz's parents both sat in silence staring out the front windscreen and growling at the Gotham traffic as they made their way out of the city towards the Wayne Manor. Sam and Tucker both sat on either side of Jazz in the back each lost in their own thoughts as they stared out of the windows at the city as it drowned in a downpour reflecting the mood in the vehicle perfectly. Jazz sighed as she considered her family, and yes she included Sam and Tucker in that. They had grown so close over the past couple of months that she considered them to be as good as blood relatives.

It was going to take a long time for them all to recover from the impact of the whole incident but, she thought as she squared her shoulders, she wouldn't let her family fall she would help all of them in any way she can. She smiled to herself, _I guess the hero thing runs in the family doesn't it little brother I'm just going about it in a different way._

The gates of Wayne manor where now visible through the front window everyone perked up ready to run from the car and up the steps to the manor. They slid to a stop in front of the manors doors and all jumped out dashing for cover from the rain. They were greeted in the hall by the butler _what was his name again?_ Jazz thought to herself as he gestured towards a door on the right of them.

"Mr Wayne is waiting for you in the drawing room" the butler announced in a thick cockney accent. All five of them nodded and then entered the room to find Dick and Bruce sat in one of the settees, the coffee table in front of them laden with tea, coffee and biscuits. Bruce stood up as soon as they entered the room quickly followed by Dick. "Mr and Mrs Fenton, Jazz, Sam, Tucker please take a seat. Would you like a cup of .."

"Where is our son Mr Wayne?" Maddie asked cutting Bruce off mid-sentence.

"He's here. He's sleeping at the moment, he has been through quite a bit I was hoping to speak with you first to explain what has happened" Bruce tried to explain.

"I would like to see my son first," Maddie said as Jack put his hand on her shoulder.

"Very well, if you will follow me," Bruce said. All five of them started to follow before Bruce said "perhaps it would be best if Sam, Jazz and Tucker remained here with Dick for now"

"Yes, I agree. Children wait for us to come back please, you can all see Danny later" Maddie said speaking to the three teens who now sported disappointed and angry looks but they sank onto the settees. The three adults left the room and walked up the stairs into the upstairs hallway.

"As I said" Bruce started in a lower tone of voice "Danny has been through a lot, his appearance may be different but he is still Danny, he also needs a lot of sleep so I know how you must feel and want to talk to him but please try not to wake him."

"you mustn't think much of us if you think that we would do anything to harm our own son" stated Jack angrily picking up the implication in Bruce's words but keeping his own voice low. Bruce's lips tightened but he said nothing.

"This is his room," Bruce said making no attempt to enter. Maddie put her hand on the door handle and taking a deep breath pushed the door open quietly. Jack followed her into the large room, it was dark inside thick blackout curtains blocked the sunlight. The four-poster bed in the centre of the room drew their attention and the figure that lay in it, snoring lightly. Holding hands they slowly made their way across the room to the bed and looked down at the sleeping figure. The first thing they noticed was the white hair. Maddie thought they had been tricked at first and they were looking at the ghost boy, but she looked more closely at his features and noticed that it was her baby boy.

His mouth was open slightly as he snored, his face relaxed and peaceful, Maddie and Jack both smiled sadly at the boy their eyes filling with tears. The sheets had fallen down and gathered around his waist showing that Danny was wearing a black short sleeved t-shirt. Maddie reached down to cover him back up when she noticed something on the patch of skin showing at the bottom of his t-shirt where it had ridden up. Frowning she took hold of the t-shirt and gently lifted it, careful not to wake Danny up.

Maddie struggled to hold back the gasp that was making its way up her throat. A look of rage overtook Jack's face. A large Y shaped scar covered Danny's front from his shoulders down to his navel, other wounds looking freshly stitched and bandaged covered Danny's torso. Connections started happening in the back of Maddie's mind as she began to work things out for herself, she was nobody's fool and she considered how she had never actually seen the ghost boys face properly. She also thought about how much the GIW had been in the news lately and put two and two together. She pulled the covers up and over Danny and leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek. She began to walk out of the room and glanced back to see if Jack was following just in time to see him press a kiss to Danny's forehead and move a lock of hair out of his face.

Exiting the room the two of them turned to face Bruce who was stood against the doorframe waiting for them. "What did those monsters do to my baby?" she demanded,

"he didn't trust us enough to tell us," Jack said slightly stunned as tears silently made their way down his face. Having worked it out for himself as well. "We need to change that, he needs us," Jack said with conviction putting his arm around Maddie's shoulders.

"Perhaps if we go back downstairs we can discuss this without disturbing Danny?" Bruce asked

"of course," Maddie said her voice catching as she held back tears "lead the way." Bruce nodded and took the distraught couple back to the drawing room where the teenagers sat anxiously awaiting news of their brother and friend.

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 **A/N: Phew another chapter done, let me know what you think. Thanks for all of the faves, follows and especially the reviews. I love hearing what everyone thinks of my story, and negative reviews are just as welcome as they help me to improve.**

 **Cyberactors15: I know that the ages are wrong but I did it on purpose (it just makes for a better story to make Robin/Dick the older sibling.)**


	17. Chapter 17

Danny was staring out of the limo's window with a scowl on his face. Dick sat in silence next to him worrying at his bottom lip as Danny continued to stare at the passing buildings like he wanted to smash them all to splinters. That weekend had been an emotional one for everyone involved, lots of crying and hugs all around. The Fenton's including Sam and Tucker had spent the weekend at the mansion. After Danny had woken up and had something to eat they all sat down in the drawing room and listened as Danny told his parents everything, with Sam and Tucker's help.

They had finished the story by saying that Sam, Jazz and Tucker had found out where Danny was being held and had gone to rescue him. The three had gotten in over their heads and eventually was rescued by the Justice League (who Danny had been working with on occasion). The Justice League had kept Danny safe for a couple of weeks and had him treated by specialist doctors. Eventually, Batman and Robin turned up on Bruce's doorstep with a still healing Danny in tow.

Whilst this stuck as close to the truth as possible it concealed Bruce's and Dicks secret identities as well as any other league members who were involved. Dick was pretty sure that Maddie didn't buy the whole story but she wisely kept any suspicions to herself. Jack, on the other hand, bought every word.

"I'm so proud of you Danny," Maddie said with fresh tears in her eyes "We're so sorry for everything we've done, can you forgive us?"

"Mom I …" Danny choked out before launching himself forwards to hug his mother, tears now freely streaming down both of their faces. Jack stepped forward and enveloped them both in his large arms, everyone was now crying, even Bruce seemed to be blinking rapidly in order to prevent tears. Dick looked over to the door where Alfred was wiping his face with a dishcloth when a hand grabbed the front of his shirt yanking him forwards to join the group hug, which now included Sam, Jazz and Tucker.

What happened next is what was currently upsetting Danny. After Danny had been sent back to bed under protest, the emotions involved had used up all of his energy and everyone wanted to have him healed and rested, the Fentons and Bruce had started discussing Danny's future. Dick was told to take the other teens on a tour of the mansion whilst the adults talked. This was something all of them hated, to be treated like children, so as soon as they could they snuck back and put their ears to the door.

Bruce had convinced the Fentons to keep Danny in Gotham, Bruce could have the very best doctors and psychiatrists to look after the boy for the next few weeks whilst he recovered. Bruce had also argued that whilst Gotham may not be the best environment, the mansion was relatively secluded with extensive grounds and large security team to make sure that Danny stayed safe. The Fentons had reluctantly agreed, they wanted Danny home but they, like any good parents, wanted the best for their son. After thinking it though had decided that for now, Amity park was not the best place for him.

They did, however, have conditions, Danny was to attend a school whilst he was recovering. Nothing too strenuous just three days a week and homework to make sure he didn't fall too far behind and could catch up on everything he may have missed. Danny was also to have a bodyguard with him every time he left the mansion and must phone his parents every day to tell them how he is doing. Bruce agreed to all of the conditions and so Danny had been registered with Gotham Academy as a temporary transfer student from Casper High. Dick was to be his bodyguard, not that Dick would have it any other way, and so Danny would have to follow Dick to all of his classes.

Bruce had told Danny's parent s that they had hired a proper bodyguard, but dick was more than capable of looking after his little brother. To say that Danny had not been happy with this arrangement would be an understatement hence his current attitude of not talking to anyone. Danny pulled at the collar of his new, and highly uncomfortable, school uniform as the limo drew up to the front of the school.

"Look Danny I.." Dick began

"You don't trust me," Danny said quietly cutting Dick off mid-speech.

"What?" Dick asked momentarily confused,

"You don't trust that I'll get mad and go psycho on someone and I'll hurt them" Danny explained, "That's why you're not letting me out of your sight isn't it?" Danny asked. Dick just bit his lip again, that had been something that Bruce had told him to watch out for. They hadn't missed the flash of red in his eyes when Danny got mad.

"It's ok," Danny said sounding incredibly sad "I don't trust me either" he whispered as he pulled the door handle and climbed out of the limo as it ground to a halt.

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Vlad was reading some of the research done whilst Danny was in the custody of the GIW. The particular scientist who wrote this piece was both a genius and undeniably insane. Vlad sighed as he flipped through the mad man's ramblings, most of this was useless but there was the odd nugget of gold in among the paranoid delusions. The man's scientific work was held as gospel for most of the GIW's agents, which is precisely why Vlad believed that they fell in the end. The scientist himself was now dead, Vlad had seen to that, the secret base where he had been stationed had collapsed in on itself just as the Justice league was getting close to their location, killing everyone inside.

The main topic of the piece that Vlad was now reading was based on ghost power classifications and the ability of some ghosts to move up and down the scale. Level 1 was the lowest, the skeletons, slimes and animal ghosts that only possessed the basic powers and had limited intelligence beyond following the orders of more powerful ghosts. Level 2 was barely any better but they did have a higher capacity to think for themselves, Vlad's vultures were in this category. Level 3 are ghosts who are much more intelligent and had at least one extra power, most of the ghosts Vlad had sent against Danny were in this category, Skulker, Technus the lunch lady etc. To begin with, this is where Vlad thought Danny was on the scale too, however after further thought, Vlad would have to place Danny in the level 4 category, with the potential to reach level 5 were Vlad's own power level currently sat.

Ghosts with a level 5 power level were relatively rare but level 6 is when it gets more interesting and hence Vlad's current interest in the paper before him. A level 6 would be able to wipe a city off the map with relative ease, and yet ghosts of this level almost never left the ghost zone. Historic figures such as the Greek gods fell into this category, he knew that Pandora resided in the ghost zone, she could quite easily fall into this category herself. Vlad was not foolish enough to go and measure this for himself however and so it would remain a mystery. There was, however, one ghost that interested him greatly, Desiree, on any normal day she was a level 3 verging on level 4 ghost in power. However she had the ability to collect power from her wishes, the more she granted the more powerful she became, this meant potentially she could reach level 6.

Vlad was turning this piece of information over in his head and wondering how he could use it to his advantage. The experiments performed on Daniel had the potential to boost a halfa's power levels, more experiments were being carried out right this minute in the one remaining GIW base that was operational to confirm the findings before Vlad tried it out on himself. Assuming that the doctors that had been treating Daniel had not spotted the change, or had no idea how to reverse it. Daniel's power levels will continue to climb for the next few months, Vlad would have to prepare a way of nullifying that effect just in case it came back to bite him in the ass.

Vlad shrugged to himself in the silent office, assuming all went well Vlad's power would still outshine the young halfa's, and Daniel would eventually come to him for help. After all Daniel's, and soon Vlad's, lifespans had just gone from decades to millennia. Meaning that Vlad now had all the time in the world to win Daniel over to his side, eventually, all of his friends and family would be gone leaving just him and Vlad, and the best thing was Vlad wouldn't have to lift a finger.

Before Vlad finished on that happy thought he looked at the last part of the classification research. Level 7s, the scientist had also called them world eaters, only one was potentially known from legend, Pariah Dark. He was thankfully sealed away in the sarcophagus of forever sleep, the scientist hoped that this ghost was just a legend and nothing more as it could have the potential to wipe out all life on Earth should it want to.

Vlad, on the other hand, knew better, having spent a fair bit of time in the ghost zone one could not miss the giant red keep at the centre. You could see Pariah's keep no matter where you went in the ghost zone, no matter how far you travelled you can always see it looming ominously. Vlad had no intention of ever getting near it, but maybe if things didn't go so well with the current plan, and the plan of the Light, in particular, he might be able to manipulate the poor ghost boy into retrieving that power for him.

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 **Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favs. This was just a quick chapter to keep you all interested :).** **In the next chapter I'm gonna get Danny back on a team mission!**


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